A New Pirate Crew Emerges
by TJRapper
Summary: A new crew dares to venture into the Grand Line, how will this group survive and what kind of challenges will they meet. OC Pirate Crew, my own and reader created characters. Still accepting submissions for villians.
1. My Idea

**Well here you go, updated version of chapter 1**

**A New Pirate Crew Emerges - Chapter 1: My Idea**

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Well, I am updating this chapter to explain what is happening with the story.

For those of you new to this story, it is an OC Pirate Crew story. The captain and first mate are based on my friend and I. I asked for characters from my readers and all the characters that I plan to have in the crew have now been picked and are in the story.

For any of you who believe you have an amazing character that should be in the story, you can still submit that person to be a marine or an enemy the crew will face in the future. Obviously if this is what you want please send the character to me through a PM or email or else anyone who reads the reviews will know the future plot, and that's just not as much fun.

If you wish to see the crew so far, please check chapter 5, the Crew Bio Page. I update it every time a new crew member is added.

I realize that the first few chapters aren't the greatest, but please at least read some of the later chapters, as my writing and the fights get much better as the story goes on.

If you do wish to submit a marine or enemy character, please keep in mind a couple things.

1. Any Devil's Fruit must be approved by me (to make sure they don't belong to a future character or an existing character)

2. Please include a bio that describes the character's motivations, physique, fighting style, etc.

3. Characters cannot take the position of an existing character in the One Piece universe (i.e. You can't make a new Fleet Admiral or Admiral because those positions are already filled in the real One Piece Story)

4. Despite how long it takes me to release chapters, I have thought out what is going to happen in the story several chapters ahead of what's published, so if you want to submit a villain I will pretty much determine when he will appear (If you submit a character at chapter 14 don't expect him/her to be in the story chapter 15)

Thanks and please continue reading and reviewing so that I can get better.


	2. The Beginning of a Crew

**Well because I looked at the traffic on my story and realized alot of you were reading this chapter and than not continuing, I decided to re-type it with better spacing and a couple added/changed sentences. Hopefully this makes people want to read more of the story (Which gets much better as you go along). Well here you go:**

**Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece etc. etc.**

**A New Pirate Crew Emerges - Chapter 2: The Beginning of a Crew**

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Two men sat on a raft floating through the sea. One of the men wore a blue t-shirt covered with a black jacket with the zipper undone, his hair was dark brown, slightly messy looking and went to just before his shoulders, as well as black shorts with sandals. The other wore a black t-shirt with black pants, his hair was black, slightly wavy and only went down to a bit past his ears.

"This sucks," said the man wearing all black. " When you asked me to join your pirate crew I assumed you had a freaking ship."

The man in the jacket looked over at him, "Just shut up Jiiku, I will get us a ship, that's the first thing on my list."

"Fine, Fine," replied Jiiku, "but Tairaa, do you have to have those two tigers with us, can't we just eat them." Said Jiiku eyeing the young twin tigers that Tairaa always had with him.

"No we can't eat them! I told you I have raised these tigers since birth." Tairaa said, continuing to talk despite the look Jiiku was giving him, "and they also help me fight."

"Whatever man, as long as we get to an island and find a ship soon. Do you even know where we are going?" Jiiku said, getting increasingly more annoyed.

Tairaa replied trying to sound as positive as possible, "Well I sort of have a slight idea of the direction we might be going in."

"In other words," said Jiiku followed by a slight pause, "we're lost."

"Ok, we are not lost, I looked at a map before we left and there is an island due west that has a large dock, which means they should have a couple boats for sale."

"That's great and all, but there is one flaw in your plan," said Jiiku.

"Oh ya, and what would that be," responded Tairaa.

Jiiku quickly pointed out at the sea and said" That."

In front of Jiiku and Tairaa was a Sea King. It was not a full-grown one; it was a young sea king that had gotten separated from his parents. It stood about 18 feet out of the water.

"Oh this is gonna be fun." Said Tairaa as the young Sea King charged toward them.

Tairaa quickly slapped his hands together and pulled them apart, revealing two circles with diamonds in the middle on his palms. He placed those symbols onto his tigers and yelled, "FUSE!"

"What the hell are you doing?" said Jiiku as he watched a bright blue light glow over Tairaa and his tigers.

While Jiiku was still blinded by the light Tairaa began to talk to him. "I never showed you this ability back when we met, but I have a Devil's Fruit. It is called the Fuse Fuse Fruit. It allows me to fuse things together. Which is why I have these tigers."

Jiiku rubbed his eyes and looked up to see Tairaa standing there, but the tigers gone. Tairaa turned around and Jiiku saw what had happened. Tairaa's legs were now pumped up and the nails on his hands had grown slightly longer. His pupils were no longer regular pupils, but had turned into little slits.

"Holy crap." Was all Jiiku could say before Tairaa bent down like a runner about to start a race, and disappeared. Before Jiiku could comprehend what had just happened, he heard the Sea King cry out in pain. Tairaa had dashed forward with such speed and punched the Sea King with such force it was almost falling over. The Sea King started to straighten himself and Tairaa used this opportunity to push off the Sea King and back on to the raft.

"This may help, but the fact is it is still a Devil's Fruit and I can't go in the water. So I might need a little help." Said Tairaa while looking at Jiiku, but still keeping most of his attention on the recovering Sea King.

"Well," Jiiku paused for a moment. "You hit him high, and I'll hit him low." Within seconds Tairaa laid on his back and lifted his feet in the air. Jiiku jumped onto Tairaa's feet and Tairaa used his strength to push Jiiku at super speeds and than stood up and jumped towards the Sea King's head. Jiiku hit the Sea King in the stomach, and Tairaa hit it in the head. They both jumped off the body back to the raft as the Sea King collapsed. Just before the Sea King hit the water, something flew out of its mouth and landed in the sea.

"What the hell was that?" said Jiiku as he went closer to the edge to get a better look. Suddenly the head of a small of a young shark popped out of the water and looked at Jiiku. "AHHHH!" Jiiku shouted as he jumped back.

Jiiku slowly got up the courage and walked toward the shark. When Jiiku got close enough, the shark rubbed his head against Jiiku. "How cute," said Tairaa in a sarcastic tone, "I think he likes you."

"Ha ha, laugh away, but I think I'm going to keep him," responded Jiiku.

"WHAT!" Tairaa quickly said in reaction to this proposal.

Jiiku began to explain. "Look, we saved him and I guess he doesn't have a family, and besides, you fight with those tigers, why can't I fight with a shark?"

"Fine, fine, and by the way, those tigers have names; they are called Roje and Jeimuzu." Said Tairaa.

"Speaking of which, I should give this guy a name, ok, ok, a good name for a shark," said Jiiku as he taped his finger on his chin. Suddenly, "I GOT IT! I will name him……… Birdy!"

This was followed by a quick smack to the side of the head from Tairaa, "It's a fish you idiot, you can't call it Birdy."

"Well to bad," said Jiiku, "now let's get going to that island."

The two men and three animals set out towards the island that they hoped was straight ahead of them.

"So," said Jiiku. "While we have time, you want to explain this Devil's Fruit to me?"

"Fine, fine," said Tairra. "Where should I start? As I said already, this Devil's Fruit is called the Fuse Fuse Fruit. It allows me to fuse objects, and even people and animals together to create a new object or person. But the effect is only temporary, because if I do not separate the two items, there is a chance that their DNA could fuse together and they could stay like that. Which might seem like a good thing at first, but a fight between DNA to see which will take control would kill the host. So the less complicated the items I fuse, the longer I can keep them together. That is how I fight; I fuse my tigers into my legs, allowing me to gain great agility for a brief period of time. Do you get it now?"

"Uhhh, sure." Responded Jiiku. "But lets keep going, I think I can see the island now."

Tairaa and Jiiku arrived at the island about half an hour later, and instantly destroyed the raft they had been traveling on because they weren't leaving without a real boat. Roje and Jeimuzu came with Tairaa and Birdy stayed near the docks. They walked up and down the streets in the town, observing the local stores in the town.

The town was quite small but still had a fare amount of shops. There were sword shops and gun shops, but no shops that looked like they sold boats.

Tairaa turned to Jiiku, "Hey, maybe we should just ask one of the people around here. Lets try this shop." Tairaa said while walking into a food store.

Tairaa slowly approached a man who was holding a large piece of meat, trying to sell it to people passing by, no one seemed interested though. When Tairaa got closer to the man, the man seemed to get happier.

The man looked right at Tairaa and began talking, "What about you sir? Would you like to buy this marvelous piece of meat? I can give you a really nice price."

"Sorry, I'm not really looking for food at the moment. Do you happen to know where I could find a boat for sale? Or possibly someone who could build one, like a shipwright."

"I'm sorry, I just arrived here in town recently and I…" the man was about to finishing talking and was cut off by a woman walking by the stand.

"I know a shipwright you guys could talk to. He is a friend of mine. Follow me." The woman said, carefully observing Tairaa and Jiiku. She motioned them to follow her, which Tairaa and Jiiku quickly did.

Tairaa and Jiiku kept walking with the woman; she had shoulder length black hair and amber colored eyes. She wore tight tan pants and a button up black vest and wooden sandals. "So, what's your name?" asked Tairaa.

"My name is Cora," she responded. "I work with a shipwright." She continued to talk, but Tairaa was too distracted looking her over, in case of any traps or weapons. Than he spotted something he should have saw from the beginning.

"Holy crap!" Tairaa yelled, "You're carrying a marine rifle." Tairaa and Jiiku quickly jumped back and got into attack positions.

"Don't worry." Cora said grabbing the rifle, "It's just a cover I put over my sword." She slowly pulled back the marine rifle coating and revealed a long sword under it.

"Wow," said Jiiku. "That's really clever."

"Well, now that that's settled, can you take us to this shipwright?" Asked Tairaa, feeling slightly embarrassed for overreacting.

"Sure," responded Cora. "He is right down here." Suddenly a great thud came from the road Cora was pointing down. "OH MY GOD!" Cora screamed. "Razar!" she quickly forgot all about Jiiku and Tairaa and ran down the street at top speed.

"Guess we better follow." Said Tairaa as he and Jiiku ran down the street.

At the end of the street, near a dock, there stood a group of mermen. They all stood in a circle, but in the middle of the circle, was a tall snapping turtle merman, with a fist in his stomach. The other merman who had punched him slowly drew his hand back. The turtle was looking down at the floor and slowly lifted his head up, with a big smile on his face. "Is that all you got?" he said laughing at the merman who had punched him, while slowly getting to his feet.

The turtle quickly shot his arm out and grabbed the man by his face. He lifted him into the air and delivered a powerful punch to the guy's stomach. Than he spun around and hurled the merman into a wall directly beside Tairaa and Jiiku.

"Now get the hell out of here before I get pissed!" said the snapping turtle merman. Quickly the group of mermen ran, grabbed their friend and left.

"Man that was awesome," said Jiiku. "You totally kicked their buts." Tairaa and Jiiku walked up to the merman.

Just before they were about to introduce themselves, Cora jumped out of nowhere and began to hug the turtle merman. "Razar," she said "are you okay, they didn't hurt you did they?"

Razar replied, "No, no, I'm fine, they were all a bunch of weaklings." Now that he was standing in front of them, Tairaa and Jiiku could get a better look at Razar. Razar as a merman wears a black spiked multi-layer shell on his back. At the base of his  
shell, a thick powerful tail hangs between his thick powerful legs. Though a hard shell covers his back, his front is another story. His front looks very much like a human though is a light gray in color. He had a beak on his face and his hands and feet have razor sharp claws.

"Hey," said Tairaa. "I'm Tairaa nice to meet you. I hear you can build us a ship."

Razar laughed as he responded, "Of course I can! I'm the best shipwright in this part of the sea."

"Great," said Jiiku. "But if you don't mind me asking, what was with those guys earlier? Did you get in an argument?"

"No," said Razar sadly. "Look, just don't worry about it, I don't want to involve other people in my problems. But if you want a ship, I can make it for you in a couple of days."

"That would be great, but I have one other question for you," said Tairaa.

"Sure go ahead." Said Razar in a calm voice.

"Will you join my pirate crew?" asked Tairaa as bluntly as possible.

"WHAT!" yelled Razar as he tried to comprehend the question.

"Ya, I am making a pirate crew and you would be a great addition to my crew, plus I will need someone who can fix the ship when it breaks." Tairaa said, still looking completely calm.

"I'm sorry," said Razar. "But I'm going to have to decline your offer. I can't leave here, I have work, and Cora."

"Fine, fine, but when the make the ship, I want it big enough to fit at least 10 people on it. Oh ya, and its got to have room for these two tigers and a shark. Well, see you around." Said Tairaa as he and Jiiku walked away to go find a hotel for the night.

The next day, Tairaa and Jiiku went to go find Razar, to see if he had a plan laid out for the ship. When they got to the dock the scene that lay before them horrified them.

The entire dock was destroyed, cracks in the street and walls of buildings showed a large battle. Tairaa and Jiiku ran around to try and find Razar; they found him on the next street facing another large merman. Both were covered in many injuries and were bleeding severely. The merman that Razar was facing was a bull shark. He had a human head with jaws like a shark, a large fin on his back, he was dark gray in colour and he had webbed feet. All around the two fighters lay collapsed bodies of mermen.

Razar looked at the other merman. "Carnage," he said. "Stop this madness!"

"Never," replied Carnage. "I will not stop until you are dead. You beat me before, but this time things will be different." Carnage reached behind his back and pulled out a large sword and began to charge towards Razar. Without enough time to dodge or block, Razar raised his arms in front of his chest to clock the blow. Right before the sword was about to pierce his arms, a leg appeared from nowhere and hit Carnage in the side of the head, sending him flying into sea.

Razar looked in front of him to see a figure, the man slowly turned around and it was Tairaa. He smiled and looked at Razar, "Looks like you could use some help." He said.

Suddenly a sword came flying out of the water towards Tairaa. He dodged it and it continued flying heading straight for Jiiku. "Watch out Jiiku!" yelled Tairaa. Jiiku simply stepped to the side, stuck out his arm and caught the sword in mid flight.

"This will do nicely," he said as he examined the sword. Suddenly a large splash came from the sea and Carnage jumped out wielding another sword. "I got this one," said Jiiku as he ran and jumped into the air. He and Carnage clashed swords and jumped apart. Jiiku ran towards Carnage and they once again clashed. As they both pushed to try and gain the upper hand, two fists came out and slammed into Carnage's face. He once again went flying, but managed to put a hand on the ground and balance out.

"This is not your fight!" he screamed at Tairaa and Jiiku.

"Well, he is making us a ship, and we don't want him dying before it's done, so I think that makes it our fight." Tairaa responded, cracking his knuckles in anticipation.

Enraged, Carnage charged towards all three of the fighters. Jiiku and Razar were about to get into attack positions, when Tairaa told them, "Don't worry guys, this one's all mine. I've been meaning to try out this attack anyway." A bright light quickly appeared as Tairaa fused with Roje and Jeimuzu to get his tiger legs.

Tairaa got down into his race start position and in the blink of an eye was gone. Suddenly, Carnage bent over in pain as a fist went straight into his stomach. Suddenly Tairaa disappeared again and reappeared behind and over Carnage's head, facing the same direction as Carnage. Tairaa's legs quickly wrapped around Carnage's head and shoulders, stopping him from moving. Tairra leaned back and planted his hands on the floor. He used his powerful legs to lift Carnage up into the air and screamed "TIGER SLAM!" before he did a full back flip and slammed Carnage hard into the floor.

Tairaa was getting up and dusting himself off, when Carnage slowly rose to his feet behind him. With his back turned and no time to react. Tairaa prepared to be punched hard in the back, but it never came. He turned around and saw a sword pressed up against Carnage's neck. Tairaa looked to see who was holding the sword; it was none other than Cora.

After taking Carnage to some marines for the small bounty he had on his head, Cora returned back and Razar started to talk to Tairaa. "You know what?" he said, "I think I might just reconsider that offer of yours."

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**I really hope that was better and made more of you want to continue reading, if not, feel free to just leave, or submit a review as to why you didnt like it. Just try not to be to much of a jerk.**


	3. Cats and Clowns

**Hello faithful readers, I have finally finsihed writing chapter 3. Thanks for waiting and reading.**

**This chapter is just over 4,300 words, my longest ever.**

**Please read and review, thanks to Shadow Element 13 for being the second person to create a charcter.**

**I am still looking for people to be in the crew if you are interested, without more people this story will stop.**

**Well here you go, A New Pirate Crew Emerges: Chapter 3- Cats and Clowns.**

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Tairaa, Jiiku, Razar and Cora sat at a table in the local pub. They were not talking until Tairaa broke the silence.

"So, you said you would join my crew, but what is this condition?"

Well, its very simple," said Razar, pointing over at Cora, "Cora gets to come too."

"Her, but she looks so weak!" blurted Jiiku. Before Tairaa had time to hit Jiiku, Razar had grabbed him by the throat and was holding him in the air.

"What was that?" asked Razar resisting the urge to break Jiiku's neck.

Jiiku gasped for breath as he talked, "Noth-cough-nothing, I'm-gasp- sorry." With this Jiiku was dropped onto the floor. He lay on the floor attempting to catch his breath.

"Well, now that that's settled, I would be fine with Cora joining. She looks like a good swordsman, but can you cook or something?" asked Tairaa completely ignoring Jiiku.

"Well," started Cora. "I use to read lots of books on navigating. I have always wanted to explore the world." Cora looked over at Razar and continued. "But I don't want you doing this Razar, it is too dangerous, you could get hurt again."

"It's ok, I'll be fine as long as you're with me." Said Razar, as he looked her right in the eyes.

"Fine, but I won't like it." Said Cora as she turned around pouting.

"Yes!" screamed Tairaa as he jumped into the air. "Now our adventure begins, and since we are all friends, I guess I better show you this." Tairaa proceeded to reach into his pocket and pulled out a rolled up sheet of paper. He unrolled it to show a picture of him. Written below it was something that surprised everyone.

The poster read: "Wild Cat" Tairaa.

Bounty: 15,000,000 Beri

"WHAT! YOU HAVE A BOUNTY ALREADY!" yelled everyone at the table.

"How did you get that?" asked Jiiku, "And why are your eyes all creepy in this picture?"

With this remark, the rest of the crew looked more closely at the picture. Instead of the brown eyes he normally had. Tairra had a pair of very slim yellow eyes with slits for pupils.

"Look, that would involve talking about my past, and I don't think I'm ready to do that yet. Sorry" Tairaa said trying to avoid eye contact. Trying to get off this topic Tairaa started to talk again. "So, when do you think you can finish our ship?" he looked over at Razar.

"Well," Razar started. "Depending on how big of a ship we're talking about and what kind of things you want in this ship."

"Well, I want it to be a ship that can fit at least 10 people. It needs to have a kitchen, and all the necessities." Tairaa stopped talking so he could think. Jiiku quickly smacked his arm. "Oh ya, and some sort of aquarium that can go out into the ocean."

"Why?" asked Razar with a puzzled look on his face.

"Jiiku has a pet shark. I also need a place for my pets." Said Tairaa while petting the two tigers sitting beside him.

"Well if that's all, I can have it done in a couple of days. Now I just need to get the supplies. I'll need lots of wood…" Razar continued to list items as he walked out of the bar.

"I better go with him." Cora said leaving Tairaa and Jiiku sitting in the bar.

"Well, I'm gonna go train, want to come? I've been working on this new attack." Tairaa asked Jiiku.

"No thanks, I'll let it be a surprise." Jiiku responded, "I have to go see Birdie anyway."

"Alright whatever, come on Jeimuzu and Roje." Tairaa motioned to his tigers as he walked out of the bar.

It has been several days since Razar began work on the ship. Tairaa was walking down the street to his usually training ground, when Cora came up to him and started to pull him towards the docks.

"What's the rush?" asked Tairaa still being dragged

"Its finished, Razar finished making your ship, you have to come see." Cora said with excitement in her voice.

Soon they arrived at the dock to see Jiiku and Razar already there. Sitting on the water was a ship covered by a tarp. Razar saw that Tairaa had arrived and he began to talk.

"Well, now that you are finally here, it is time that reveal this thing. Pirates, I give you, Poseidon's Fury!" Razar yelled as he grabbed the tarp and pulled it off the ship.

Under the tarp was a medium sized ship. (Bigger than the Going Merry but not quite as big as 1000 Sunny) It had two masses that extended high into the air. The deck had a sort of carpet over it to make it soft to walk around on. On the front of the boat was a carving of a cat head with claw marks on its face and fangs showing from its mouth.

"Wow, this thing is amazing, I have to see inside." And with that Tairaa disappeared into the interior of the ship.

Once he went through the door leading inside, the staircase branches off into two separate parts. All of the bedrooms that the crew would sleep in were in one part. Including the Captain's Quarters that had a map of the surrounding area posted on the wall. A desk for writing and planning, and a Den Den Mushi that connected to a speaker on the outside of the boat to announce things to the crew. Lastly it had a small room attached to it for Jeimuzu and Roje.

Down the other staircase were all of the places where the crew would be eating and working, the kitchen, the infirmary, the weapons room, the aquarium for Birdie, and an entertainment room.

Everyone was waiting outside when Tairaa came over the speaker system. "This ship is awesome, you are the best Razar."

" I know," responded Razar. "But thanks anyway."

After everyone had explored the ship and all the supplies had been loaded. The crew began the most important discussion of all.

"So guys," Tairaa started, "What shall we call ourselves. We need a name."

"Oh, I got…" Jiiku started to talk but was cut off by Tairaa

"A name that isn't something stupid like the Super Awesome Pirates." He said in an annoyed tone.

"How did you know?" asked Jiiku surprised Tairaa had guessed his suggestion perfectly.

"Well, since your bounty is 'Wild Cat' Tairaa. Why don't we just call ourselves the 'Wild Cat Pirates?'" Razar said looking over at Tairaa.

"I have no problems with that. Any objections?" Tairaa asked quickly scanning everyone. When no one said anything he spoke again. "Than it is decided, from this day on, we will be known as the Wild Cat Pirates!"

Everyone cheered at this great achievement.

"But now, we have to make a flag." Said Cora, "We can't be a pirate crew without a flag."

The crew sat around for a while before finally coming up with a design.

" I got it!" yelled Jiiku, everyone turned surprised he had thought of something first. "We should get a Jolly Roger and in its eyes put the kind of eyes Tairaa has on his bounty poster, and on the end of the crossbones put tiger claws. How about that?" Everyone stared at Jiiku with their mouths hanging open.

"That is brilliant." Said Tairaa than he continued, "Can anyone here actually draw that?"

"Sure, I can." Said Razar, "I have to put designs on ships all the time, drawing a flag shouldn't be that hard, right?"

Razar was right and within a couple of minutes the crew had raised their flag to the top of the mass. They all got on the boat and Tairaa yelled out, "Now let's get going, I can't become Pirate King just sitting here!" and with that the crew set off.

The crew had been out at sea for several days. Tairaa came over the speaker to make an announcement, "Guys, can everyone report to the Captain's Quarters please." Everyone made their way over to the Captain's room and went inside. There stood Tairaa looking at the map on his wall. He called everyone over. "Okay guys, I have found an island due west of our position that we can dock at and re-supply. We will stay for a couple days and hopefully we can get another crewmember because this island is very close to Reverse Mountain. Alright, lets go!"

Just before reaching the island, Jiiku spotted something to the side of the ship. "Tairaa!" he yelled, "there is another ship out there."

"What kind of ship?" asked Tairaa praying it was not the Marines.

"I can't tell, they have their masses and flags down, but it doesn't look like the marines." Responded Jiiku.

"Well that's a relief, let's just leave them." Tairaa and his crew continued for the nearby island. When they arrived at the island the crew tied up the ship and set out for the local store.

The crew was just outside the village in a forest when a voice came from around them and began to talk. "You there, stop!" demanded the voice.

"Damn, we're already being ambushed, we haven't even been pirates for a week!" yelled Jiiku.

" I know who you are, you are 'Wild Cat' Tairaa. I have one thing to say to you." Suddenly the voice vanished Tairaa began to scan the area.

"Everyone get ready, he could come from anywhere." Tairaa continued to look left and right and than he heard a noise from above, he lifted his head and screamed, "everyone move!"

The crew jumped out of the way just as a man slammed into the ground from the sky, leaving a large hole in the ground. The man wore a blue button up shirt, black jeans, black boot, and sunglasses. There was a scar going across what the crew could see of his left eye. He was about 6 feet tall with tanned skin. His hair was light blue and went down just past his shoulders.

"What the hell do you want?" asked Razar still in his fighting pose.

"What I want…is to join you guys!" answered the man.

With this everyone fell to the ground in surprise. Tairaa got up and dusted himself off. "Why do you want to join us, kid?"

" Hey, I'm not a kid, my name is Akira, Akira Kido. I have always been an adventurer, and being a pirate would be the biggest adventure of my life, and you look like you have potential," responded Akira.

"Alright, prove to me that you deserve to be a pirate, if you can hit me once, than I might think about letting you join the crew. But no weapons." Said Tairaa eyeing the pistol that Akira had strapped to his waist.

Tairaa jumped back, and got into his fighting pose ready to dodge any attack. When he looked at Akira, he was looking down at the ground shaking his hands. Before Tairaa could figure out what was going on, a large piece of earth was ripped from the ground in the shape of a fist. But it was not being held by anything, it was just floating.

"Tsu Tsu Fist!" (Earth Earth Fist) screamed Akira as he punched the rock and it went hurtling toward Tairaa. Not expecting this kind of attack Tairaa was surprised but still dodged it by jumping to the side.

"So a Devil's Fruit user, huh?" Tairaa said in a moderate tone. "This should get interesting."

Akira slammed his foot onto the ground and a rock shaped like a foot came out, he quickly spun around kicked it screaming "Tsu Tsu Kick!" as the rock flew towards Tairaa.

Tairaa saw this one coming and did a back flip over the rock. He landed on the floor a bit surprised, "I never realized how hard it is to fight without fusing." He said, "But I don't want to hurt this guy."

Tairaa turned back to see Akira had vanished, he reappeared behind Tairaa and sent another fist towards Tairaa. Tairaa simply stuck his hand out and caught the rock in mid air. It was still traveling and started to push him back. Tairaa screamed and pushed down on the rock and slammed it into the ground, shattering it into pieces.

Just before Akira was about to attack again, Tairaa held up his hand and yelled "Enough!" when Akira had settled down he continued, "I see you have great power, that last attack could have really injured me if I hadn't been careful. So if it is ok with everyone else, I'd like to welcome Akira to the "Wild Cat" Pirates."

"That's great!" yelled Akira as he jumped in the air.

"Hold on a sec buddy. I want to hear more about your abilities." Razar asked from the sideline.

"Sure," responded Akira. "I'd be happy to explain them. See when I was young; I ate the Tsu Tsu no mi. (Earth Earth Fruit), giving me the ability to control earth. I'm also a very skilled marksman, I use this pistol that I got when I was young, it belonged to my father."

"A marksman huh?" said Jiiku, "Well let's see it, I want to see you hit that tree way down there." Jiiku pointed down a clearing in the forest and at the end about 300 yards away was a tree.

"Fine, if you insist." Said Akira as he pulled out his pistol, pointed it straight ahead and fired, easily hitting the tree dead in the center.

"But I have to tell you again, this isn't a game." Said Tairaa in a serious tone. "We are going to the Grand Line, it will be really tough."

"Come on, you fought me and you still don't trust me, how can I prove to you that I'm serious about doing this?" asked Akira getting really annoyed.

"Well you could fight those pirates that just landed on the beach." Said Jiiku pointing out towards the shore. Seeing a band of pirates get off their ship and head towards the crew.

"WAIT WHAT?!" screamed everyone, "why are you just telling us this now!?"

"I thought you guys noticed." Said Jiiku ready to run if the crew got angry and attacked him.

"Well," said Tairaa, "This just got a lot more interesting." He slowly began to walk out of the forest and towards the pirates walking towards him.

The crew followed behind him until the two crews were meters apart. Tairaa scanned the opposing crew; there were plenty of members, but three he recognized above everyone else.

"Well, look who it is. I believe you are called Buggy the Clown." Said Tairaa pointing a pirate with a big red nose and a clown outfit. "And you would be Alvida," beside Buggy stood a large woman carrying a club. "And you… are Captain Kuro?" Tairaa was confused, seeing the famous Captain Kuro, who was suppose to have been executed alive.

"Yes, I am, and I believe you are the one called 'Wild Cat' Tairaa." Said Kuro adjusting his glasses with his palm.

"I sure am, now let's skip the formalities, what are you here for?" asked Tairaa

"Well, we are here to do what pirates do best, plunder and steal." Responded Buggy

"Well, I don't think that will be happening if we can say anything about it!" yelled Jiiku as he jumped at Buggy. A fist that was supposed to hit Buggy in the stomach missed when Buggy's body came apart and started to float around. "My god, what is with you pirates and your Devil Fruits?" The two jumped over to the side and began to fight.

"Hey, look what we got here a turtle, maybe I can cook him up and make soup." Came a voice from the side. It was Alvida, and she began to charge for Razar. Razar easily saw through the woman's pathetic attempt to hit him and punched her in the gut. This sent her flying all the way down to where to ships were, Razar ran down, jumping over Buggy's crew to get to his opponent.

"Well, I guess that leaves you and me." Said Tairaa as he looked at Kuro. Suddenly Kuro pulled out a pair of gloves with long swords on the each finger. "Ah, claws, well you're not the only one who's got some. Time to show everyone my new technique." Tairaa held his hands together and the symbol appeared on his hands, Roje and Jeimuzu knew what was going on and ran to his side. "FUSE!" screamed Tairaa as he placed his hands on the tigers.

Instead of the regular fusion with just tiger legs, Tairaa now had tiger claws. _I can't hold this for long, _Tairaa thought to himself. _Better end this quickly. _Suddenly both Kuro and Tairaa vanished in a flash.

The only two left were Cora and Akira, both staring down the remaining members of Buggy's crew. "You take the right, and I'll take the left." Said Cora as she took her sword out of the sheath. She ran forward and began to slice at the crewmembers. Akira tabbed the ground and only a small pebble came out and floated into the air.

"What are you gonna do with that? Give me a boo-boo!" said one of the crewmembers as he began to laugh. Suddenly small pebble was punched by Akira and punctured the shoulder of the pirate who was laughing; he instantly fell to the ground. "Tsu Tsu Bullet, bet that hurt." Akira said as the man was on the ground crying in pain. "Now lets see how this does."

Akira jumped into the air and slammed into the floor, suddenly many small and medium sized rocks came out of the ground. "Tsu Tsu Gatling!" suddenly all the rocks went flying towards the crew, hitting almost all of them and knocking them out. Only two people were left standing. A fat guy and a skinny guy in cat costumes trembling in fear.

"Please, don't hurt us, we want to live, LIVE!" screamed the skinny one. He paused for a moment and waited for Akira to lower his guard just slightly. "Not!' he said as he disappeared and reappeared behind Akira holding the antique pistol Akira usually had strapped to his waste.

Akira started to shake with rage as he saw his family gun being held by the hands of an unworthy pirate. The skinny pirate began to talk again. "Oh, I'm sorry, is this special. Well the truth is I don't care, I'm Sham and that's Buji, and we are gonna kick your…" but before Sham could finish his sentence, a large stone fist was slammed into his face, sending him flying.

Akira grabbed his gun as it was falling to the ground and put it back into its holster. "That's one down." He said, "Now who's next?"

Buji, angry from seeing his brother defeated so easily charged at Akira. Akira had no time to bring up something to block the attack and was sent flying when a fist connected with the side of his head. He stumbled as he got up. The sunglasses he usually wore cracked, and the lens covering his left eye completely shattered. Revealing a red eye, staring in anger at Buji.

"No, there's no way, it can't be… its Akuma, RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!" screamed Buji as he attempted to run for the ship.

"There's no way your getting away now, the party has just begun." Akira punched the ground and sent a shockwave toward Buji, when the shockwave reached him; many rocks came out of the ground and trapped him in place. Akira stomped on the ground, lifting a huge bolder out of the ground and jumping on it. He rode it into the air just above Buji.

He than punched the bolder and all of it but the part Akira was standing on shattered. These pieces flew around Akira and attached to him. He jumped off the bolder and fell towards the trapped Buji. "Tsu Tsu Missile!" he screamed as he slammed against Buji, knocking him out.

Elsewhere, Jiiku was fighting against Buggy. Buggy launched a fist at Jiiku, which he caught in mid air. Buggy had several daggers in between his fingers. Jiiku forcefully opened Buggy's palm and took the daggers, "Hope you don't mind, I'm just gonna borrow these. He quickly took the daggers and charged at Buggy, he slashed the daggers towards Buggy's arm, but it separated from his body. Just what Jiiku was expecting. He quickly spun around and punched the separated arm, making Buggy cry out in pain. Jiiku took this opportunity to punch Buggy in the face with all his strength, knocking him out.

"Well that was pathetic, I can't believe you're a captain." Jiiku said as he walked away. Suddenly a flying hand grabbed onto Jiiku's leg, and Buggy spoke. "I'm not that easy to beat." Buggy rose to his feet and charged at Jiiku. Jiiku not anticipating him to get back up had no time to block.

Suddenly Razar came flying from the side and hit Buggy with his shell. Razar got up and rubbed his head. "That woman is really annoying, I can't get a solid hit, but I have an idea." Said Razar not realizing he was sitting on top of an unconscious Buggy. "Jiiku, I need you to kick me."

"Sweet, I have been waiting for this." Said Jiiku in a happy tone. Razar stood up and pulled his arms and legs inside is shell. Suddenly swords came out of all 4 of the spots.

"Okay, when my head goes in and a sword comes out, kick me towards that woman." Razar instructed Jiiku. Seeing that Alvida was slowly approaching, Razar put his head in his shell and a sword popped out. "Five Sword Style: Spinning Shell Blade!" Razar yelled as Jiiku ran up and kicked him towards Alvida. While in mid-air, Razar began to spin and flew towards Alvida.

This attack surprised Alvida, but she still lifted her club into the air in an attempt to block the attack. But with the speed Razar was moving at, the club was cut in half like butter. The swords hit Alvida across the chest, a slash appeared and blood spat out, Alvida than collapsed on the ground.

A large scream was than heard from the direction of Cora's fight. "CORA!" screamed Razar as he ran over to help.

Cora had easily fought through the weak crewmembers, but was surprised when a man on a unicycle and a man with a lion charged at her. She was caught off guard and the man on the unicycle managed to cut her leg, making her unable to move.

"Well, I'm sorry I have to kill such a beautiful face." Said the man on the unicycle holding Cora's chin.

"You get your sticking hands off her." Came Razar's voice.

"Razar, I'm sorry, they caught me by surprise." Said Cora trying not to look scared."

"Its ok, this will be over quickly." Said Razar, as he looked at the lion tamer. A quick punch to the stomach and he was already done.

The man on the unicycle charged at Razar and drew his sword; he stabbed it out at Razar. Razar easily stepped to the side. Before the man had time to pull back his sword, Razar stuck out his beak and bit the sword in half.

"Oh boy," was all the man could say before he was uppercutted into the air. While in mid-air, Jiiku appeared out of nowhere, brought his leg up in the air and dropped in hard on the man's stomach. This sent him plummeting towards the ground. Now that everyone was done fighting, they looked over to watch Tairaa fight Kuro, knowing not to get involved in the fight.

A large cut suddenly appeared across Tairaa's chest. He leaned over to catch his breath. _Damn, this guy is strong, and I can't keep up this fusion more much longer, _Tairaa thought.Tairaa looked over to see Kuro, also out of breath because of the multiple cuts on his body.

"I think that this will be decided with the next attack." Said Tairaa, seeing as they were both out of breath.

"I believe so too." Said Kuro, and with that he charged at Tairaa not having the energy to move at super speed anymore. Kuro swiped a claw at Tairaa, but instead of dodging it, Tairaa stuck out his arm and the claws cut into his skin. Tairaa took that moment to wrap his arm around Kuro's and immobilize him.

"This ends now!" said Tairaa as he punched Kuro into the air. Tairaa got into his regular dashing position and jumped fast into the air spinning rapidly. He stuck his arms out as he was coming down and slammed into Kuro who was still in mid-air. "Tiger Pounce!" Tairaa screamed as he pushed Kuro towards the ground at high speeds. Everyone covered their face as Kuro hit the ground sending dust and rocks flying everywhere. Everyone ran over to Tairaa and saw him standing in front of a large crater with an unconscious Kuro in it. Roje and Jeimuzu now separated from him.

He looked over at the crew and said, "Look, I won." Before passing out and falling on the ground.

* * *

**Thanks for reading, please review for comments, not just if you want to be in the story.**

**Thanks to deathshark and Shadow Element 13 for helping me with ideas and making their characters.**

**Remember, I still need more crewmembers, you can be a cook, musician, doctor, or almost any other position you can think of.**


	4. The Grand Line?

**Thank you for waiting. I have been very busy with Culminating Tasks and assignments. I am very happy to say i got one more person to be in the story. Remember that there are still open positions on the crew.**

**Please R&R**

**A New Pirate Crew Emerges Chapter 4: The Grand Line?**

Tairaa slowly began to open his eyes, the world blurred around him

Tairaa slowly began to open his eyes, the world blurred around him. Slowly things became clearer until Tairaa realized he was in a bed in a small house. He looked around and saw his crewmembers sitting around him asleep in chairs.

"Guys, what's going on?" Tairaa managed to say lightly.

Everyone slowly opened their eyes and rubbed them, they looked at the bed to see Tairaa awake with his eyes open. "Tairaa you're awake, man are you ok?" asked Jiiku who was sitting at the end of the bed.

"I think, but what happened?" asked Tairaa suddenly feeling a large amount of pain in his chest. He looked down to see his chest and arms wrapped in bandages. "And why am I covered in bandages?"

"Well, after your fight with Kuro you passed out, so we took you to Akira's house, you've been out for a day and a half." Answered Razar, "as for the bandages, when Roje and Jeimuzu came out of you, all the cuts that didn't look so serious suddenly opened up and started spewing out blood."

"Ya, I guess they help absorb some of the damage and… wait Roje and Jeimuzu, where are they? Are they ok?" Tairaa asked frantically searching the room for his pets.

"It's ok, they're fine, a bit beat up, but those are some strong pets you got there." Answered Akira from the corner of the room where Roje and Jeimuzu lay in a large basket. "This totally makes me want to be a pirate even more."

Tairaa slowly lifted himself up and sat straight up in his bed. "By the way, did anyone ever figure out what Kuro was doing with Buggy and Alvida?"

"Oh ya," answered Cora. "It turns out they're all after some guy called "Strawhat" Luffy. But once you defeated Kuro he escaped before we could question him. But Buggy was more than willing to talk with a little persuasion." Said Cora with a grin on her face as she patted her sword.

"What did you do with him?" asked Jiiku, "and why didn't I get to be part of the interrogation."

"Well there was no point in keeping him around and we couldn't hand him over to the marines because Tairaa has a bounty, so we let him go," answered Cora. "And we didn't let you in the interrogation because you would ask a bunch of stupid questions."

"Alright guys, we have to get going soon, one of the locals has no doubt notified the Marines and they could be here any day." Said Tairaa trying to get out of his bed.

He was quickly pushed back down onto the bed by Akira, "There is no way you are getting up right now, and you still haven't healed fully." Akira said trying to hold Tairaa down without hurting him.

"Ok, ok, I won't try to get up," said Tairaa. "But a I think I have another idea," he said with an evil tone.

The village people looked in awe when they saw a man covered in bandages laying on a bed, being carried out of a house by a 7 foot tall turtle, followed by a woman carrying a marine rifle, a man wearing sunglasses standing on a floating rock, a short man laughing his head off at the turtle, and two tigers, just another average day.

When he was placed back on the ship, Tairaa began to talk to his crewmates. "So guys, with this crew, I am hoping to set out for the Grand Line. If anyone does not want to go, now is the time to say so."

"There's no way I'm leaving," said Akira, "This is going to be the best adventure EVER!"

"What kind of warrior would I be if I walked away from a challenge like this?" asked Jiiku patting Tairaa on the back.

"Well, I've stuck by you this long." Said Razar who was quickly cut of by Jiiku.

"You mean 10 days?" he said sarcastically.

"Shut up! There's no way I'm leaving my ship in the hands of you idiots." Razar continued

"Well, if Razar's going, I guess I have no choice." Said Cora getting closer to Razar.

"Alright, now that that's settled, lets get going to Reverse Mountain, the entrance to the Grand Line!" screamed Tairaa from his bed.

* * *

It had been a day and a half since the Wild Cat Pirates had set off from the island they had met Akira on. Tairaa had now fully healed and was up training once again. The voyage across the sea was long and the crew became bored.

"When are we going to see some action? I didn't become a pirate to sit around and train!" yelled Akira as he flicked pieces of rock and a target he set up on the mast.

"Don't get to cocky, training is a big part of being a pirate, if you didn't train and get stronger you would lose very quickly to more experienced pirates" said Tairaa as he practiced his fighting style against a straw dummy.

"Ya, ya, whatever, I'm just saying it would be interesting if something happened" as Akira finished his sentence, the water beside the ship erupted into the air.

"CAPTAIN!" yelled Cora from on top of the mast, "Marine ships are closing in on us!"

"Wait, did she says ships, with an S. How many are there?" Jiiku screamed as he ran around in panic.

"There are two ships coming, they'll catch up with us in a matter of seconds!" said Cora as she started to slide down the mast.

"Razar, ready the cannons, Akira get ready to do your thing! Target the ship on the left!" Tairaa yelled as he pointed to the enemy ship.

"We can't do that, the cannons are mounted on the side of the ship, and if we would be much easier to hit." Said Razar looking back to see the marine ships getting closer.

"Fine!" Tairaa yelled as he ran into the ship where the cannons were placed. "Leave it to me." He said as the door slammed shut. Suddenly a flash of blue light was seen through the floor of the ship, the door leading from the deck to the interior of the ship burst open and Tairaa came out. But cannons had replaced his normal arms.

Tairaa ran to the back of the ship and lifted his arms (cannons) up and took aim at one of the ships. He quickly fired two shots in successions at the mast of the ship. His first shot was a bit off and slammed into the deck of the marine ship, causing a large explosion and sending some marines flying into the air. Tairaa's second shot was right on target and slammed into the mast, causing it to crack and start to fall. Slamming into the deck of the ship before falling into the ocean.

Tairra once again lifted his arms and took aim at the other marine ship. He fired two other shots at the other ship's mast. This time both shots connected breaking the mast and sending crashing to the deck, injuring a few marines before falling into the ocean with the other mast.

Seeing the marine ships could no longer move, Tairaa un-fused from the cannons causing them to crash to the ground and slightly crack the deck, causing Razar to almost come over and hit Tairaa. Tairaa turned around and yelled to his crew, "Guys, turn the ship around, get ready to board the enemy ships! We need to get some money and supplies."

"Are you insane!" Yelled Jiiku, "those are marine ships, MARINE! You know, those guys that kill pirates!"

"Don't worry, if their not in the Grand Line they can't be all that strong." Said Tairaa as the ship began to turn around.

The crew's ship stopped right in front of the two marine ships, Tairaa came to the front and yelled to the Marines. "I will give you this chance to surrender, drop your weapons and let us come on board and nothing will happen to you."

At first silence as from the lower ranking marines, than suddenly.

"Not a chance!" came a voice from one of the marine ships.

"Oh no, please tell me that's not who I think it is!" said Tairaa as he crossed his fingers.

"Who do you think it is?" asked Jiiku, "We don't know any marines, do we?"

"Oh, Tairaa knows me from long before he met you guys, you could say we are rivals." Came the voice from the ship.

"And don't forget about me." Came a voice from the other marine ship.

"Oh god, they're both here!" said Tairaa as he began to walk back and forth.

Suddenly the two people revealed themselves. Everyone was shocked to see both the Captains from the two ships were the ones talking, and they were both women.

One of the Captains had curvy red hair that went just past her shoulders. She wore the standard Marine Captain uniform and carried a large metal Bo staff on her back. She was about 6 feet tall and was very skinny. She than began to speak, "Don't tell me you've already forgotten the great Marine Captain Seera." She said as she posed as if at a fashion show.

"Oh, shut up Seera. Tairaa, you obviously can't forget about me, the amazing Arissa!" Came the voice of the other Marine Captain. She had long light brown hair that went almost down to her but. She also wore the standard Captain uniform, and carried a mace on her back that was almost as tall as she was with the ball at the end being the size of about 5 cannonballs with spikes all around it. Arissa was around 6 and half feet tall and slightly built.

Seera once again began to speak, "I will never surrender Tairaa, not until you agree to marry me!"

There came a loud, "WHAT!?" from the rest of Tairaa's crew.

Tairaa turned around to try and explain their situation to them, "Look, I met her a while ago, before I even met Jiiku, I was in a bar, and one drink led to another and the next thing I remember is waking up in a marine base in a bed with her."

"REALLY!?" The crew once again screamed, shocked that Tairaa would be that reckless.

"No, not really, I was just trying to be funny, did it work?" Tairaa said as he looked at his crew who were all staring at him in disbelief. "Well anyway, she is actually just some creepy stalker. When I first became a pirate I went through a town market place and she saw me and for some reason claimed to love me and wanted to marry me and has been chasing me ever since. Isn't that weird?" Tairaa finished talking and the rest of the crew was still staring at him in disbelief.

"What about the other one?" asked Jiiku as he pointed at Arissa.

"Oh, she is just Seera's friend so she started hunting me too." Answered Tairaa

"Well, whatever, let's get them!" Jiiku screamed as he ran towards the end of the ship. He quickly hit a switch that released Birdie from the aquarium. Everyone was surprised to see Birdie had grown quite quickly over the past few weeks. He was now the size of a small raft.

Jiiku jumped off the ship and landed on Birdie's back. He began to charge towards Arissa's ship. "Look at that," Arissa said slightly laughing, "The short guy is coming to get me."

"She did not just say that." Said Tairaa as he quivered in fear.

"What, what did she say?" asked Cora

"She called him short, big mistake." Answered Tairaa.

"Why, what happens when you call him short?" asked Akira, who's question was answered seconds later.

Jiiku charged full speed at Arissa's ship, and when he was about 10 meters away he jumped into the air. He jumped over the marines and as he was coming down he screamed, "I AM NOT SHORT!!" and slammed a fist into the boat, everyone was surprised when the marine ship split completely in half sending marines and wood particles flying in every direction.

"Destruction, destruction happens." Answered Tairaa as everyone watched the ship slowly sink to the bottom of the ocean, leaving many marines swimming in the water, trying to stay afloat.

Suddenly Seera's voice could be heard above the crew, "TAIRAA!" she screamed as fell from the sky, Bo staff drawn. Bringing it down only for Tairaa to easily dodge it. When she landed she quickly turned and spun the staff. Tairaa was going to catch the staff, but saw a sparkle of blue as it was being swung, this caused him to dodge and roll to the side.

"Darn, you noticed. Well I guess I can tell you now, the end of my staff is covered in Sea Stone which weakens Devils Fruit users like yourself." Said Seera as she continued to stab her staff at Tairaa who continued to dodge the attacks.

_Damn, _Tairaa thought, _there isn't enough time for me to fuse with Roje and Jeimuzu._ Seera swung the staff at Tairaa's head. He quickly ducked under it and did a sweeping kick Seera's legs to knock her off balance. As she was getting back into fighting position, Tairaa jumped back and whistled. Roje and Jeimuzu quickly ran to him and he slapped his hands down on them, fusing only to get his tiger legs.

With his tiger legs, Tairaa quickly dashed forward to punch Seera, just before his fist was about to connect a large mace head appeared and blocked the punch. At the end of the mace was Arissa, she quickly spun the mace slamming it into Tairaa's chest, sending him flying and crashing into the railing of the ship.

Tairaa's crew began to run towards him when he yelled out, "Stay out of this, this is my fight. You guys can go fight the crew on the leftover ship." Tairaa slowly rose to his feet.

At this, Cora, Razar and Akira ran and jumped onto the enemy ship. Each member landed in a separate part of the ship, Akira quickly dispatched the marines on his part of the ship with Tsu Tsu Gatling. Razar beat his way through all the marines, using his stone hard shell to reflect the bullets they fired. Cora not wanting to be shown up quickly lifted her sword up slightly past her head and pointed it towards the ground.

She began to speak, "Dancing Blade Style: Graceful Ballet." With this Cora began to swiftly and smoothly move between the packs of marines in front of her, sword swaying back and forth very gracefully. Before any of the marines noticed she had appeared behind them.

"There she is, get her!" One of the marines screamed causing the marines to charge at Cora. Cora quickly swung her sword out to the side and suddenly cuts burst open on all the marines; they all quickly passed out and fell to the ground.

Razar and Akira looked on in amazement; shocked that Cora could pull off a move that deadly. Suddenly a battle cry was heard behind Akira and a marine who had survived Razar's attack was seen charging at Akira wielding a sword. Akira has no time to react and was preparing to get stabbed, when suddenly Birdie came flying out of the air and slammed into the man, knocking him unconscious.

Everyone looked over to the side and saw Jiiku in mid air with his arm extended as if he had just thrown something. Everyone eyes began to open wider as they realized what had just happened, "YOU THREW BIRDIE!" They all yelled at him

"Ya, its my new attack, Improve Fighting Style: Shark Missile." Jiiku responded as he landed on the ship.

"That's terrible, how could you treat your pet like that?" asked Cora making sure no one was left on the ship.

"Its fine, he can take it." Said Jiiku as the crew looked back over at Poseidon's Fury to see Tairaa still fighting Arissa and Seera.

Tairaa raised his hands to block the staff and the mace. He pushed them both into the air and jumped back.

"This ends now." Said Tairaa as he got into his trademark race starting position. He quickly disappeared and than reappeared above Arissa and brought his leg down on her head, causing a small cut and knocking her unconscious. At this Seera quickly jumped back and got in a defensive stance. Tairaa quickly disappeared again, reappearing for a second using a powerful kick to launch the staff into the air. Tairaa than delivered a quick punch to Seera's gut, than he uppercut her in the chin, sending her into the air. He jumped into the air and once again punched her in the stomach, sending her flying towards her own ship.

Seera slammed into the deck of her ship and instantly went unconscious. "Watch where you're aiming enemies, that could have hit me." Said Jiiku as he looked at the now unconscious Captain only feet beside him.

Tairaa landed back on the deck of Poseidon's Fury separated from Roje and Jeimuzu. He ran and jumped over to his crew on the marine ship. "Alright guys, let's do what pirates do and loot this ship, Jiiku, you watch over the two Captains, make sure they don't get up." Tairaa said as he motioned for the rest of the crew to follow him.

Suddenly, a large smashing noise was heard. Before anyone could even guess what was going on, a large bear burst through the wall of the marine ship.

"OH MY GOD!" Screamed Cora as she jumped back behind Razar. "Razar, do something, get rid of it!"

"Relax, I don't think its going to hurt us," said Razar as he approached the bear. "Maybe it was being held captive by the marines, or it is one of their pets. Oh, I got it, maybe it is a marine who ate the Bear Bear Fruit. That would be awesome."

To everyone's surprise, the bear began to talk. "Actually, I am not a marine." Said the bear, suddenly a large flash of light covered the bear and now in front of the crew stood a man.

The man stood at an impressive 6' 9". He has jet-black hair that went just past the middle of his back. There is a feather in his hair around his neck area. He has no shirt, buckskin pants, and a necklace of beads that went to his chest. He is golden brown in shade and has very muscular arms.

"My name is Bearpaw Jones, I am pleased to meet you." Said the man as everyone's jaw quickly hit the floor.

"That was AWESOME!" Yelled Tairaa his eyes shinning with excitement. "How do you do that, do you have the Bear Bear Fruit?"

"No actually, that reason that I can turn into a bear is because…" Started Bearpaw adding a pause for dramatic effect. "I am a Native!" Everyone fell to the ground except Jiiku who stood there looking completely unaffected.

"That makes perfect sense!" Said Jiiku who was quickly punched by every member of the crew.

"No it does not!" They all yelled at the top of their voice.

"I don't think I really believe you, can you transform into anything else?" Asked Razar still with a look of disbelief on his face.

"Sure I can, I can transform into any creature I have seen." Answered Bearpaw, "Watch." He started running and jumped into the air. "Spirit Launch!" He yelled as he quickly was covered in a glowing light, suddenly in his place was a hawk. Soaring through the sky, the hawk flew above Tairaa where the light once again flashed and Bearpaw landed in front of Tairaa.

"Wow, that's incredible. You have to come with us!" said Tairaa as he patted Bearpaw on the back.

"Come with you? To where?" Asked Bearpaw confused by Tairaa's demand.

"Well, to the end of the Grand Line, I am going to be the Pirate King." Tairaa answered with a big smile on his face.

"Well, I am traveling the world as a medicine man in search of ways to upgrade my abilities with the white man's healing techniques. I think that the Grand Line would be a great place to learn, I might go with you, but why are you all going to the Grand Line." Bearpaw asked pointing at the rest of the crew.

"Well I have something personal that I need to resolve, and that can only happen in the Grand Line." Answered Jiiku

"Well I am looking for the greatest adventure of my life." Said Akira

"I want to see how well one of my ships holds up through this whole thing." Said Razar

"I want to see the Grand Line, and stay with Razar right up until the end." Said Cora

"So how about it Bearpaw, will you come with me and my crew to the Grand Line as our ship's doctor?" Asked Tairaa, really hoping he would say yes.

"Sure, why not, it might be what you people call fun." Answered Bearpaw smiling and shaking hands with Tairaa.

"Alright its settled, Cora, set sail for the Grand Line!" Tairaa yelled as the whole crew threw their fists up into the air.

* * *

While sailing to Reverse Mountain, Tairaa decided to ask Bearpaw a question. "Hey Bearpaw, why were you locked up in a marine ship anyway if you're just studying medicine?"

"Well, I was in a village talking to a local doctor about some of the things they call antibiotics, when a overheard a marine yelling at a woman to give him money for 'protection'." Bearpaw started, "She refused and I started to hear screaming, so I burst into the shop and how would you say it, kicked his ass I believe. Unfortunately, his shipmates thought I was some sort of criminal and started attacking me, before I knew it I was fighting an entire ship full of marines. They must have been very weak because I think they had to call for reinforcement, but I only went down because some shopkeeper hit me over the head with something."

Once Bearpaw had finished his story Tairaa looked at him weirdly and started thinking, _Okay, mental note, do not piss of Bearpaw. _

"Guys, Reverse Mountain is within sight!" Cora screamed from atop the mast.

"Really, sweet, I can't wait to go over it." Said Jiiku running to the front of the ship to see this amazing sight.

"Um, guys, there is some sort of raft thing floating towards us." Said Razar who was also standing at the front looking at the mountain.

The rest of the crew ran to the front of the ship to see this raft. Surely enough, in front of the ship was a small boat floating towards Poseidon's Fury.

At closer examination Bearpaw noticed something, "Guys, there is a person in that boat."

No sooner than were those words spoken, a man stood up in the boat and jumped into the air and landed on the crew's ship.

Now that he was standing in front of them, the crew got a better look at the mystery man.

He is just less than 6 feet tall; he has two large swords on his back, two katanas on his belt, and two small daggers attached to his boots. His hair is black and messy that goes just short of his neck. His eyes are brown. He wears a large jacket that goes down to about his feet, it is white in color with the area around were the zipper would be colored red. The edge is rugged and spiky, and at his neck the collar is flipped up and goes to his ears.

The man began to speak, "Are you the one called 'Wild Cat' Tairaa?"

"Yes I am, what business do you have with me?" answered Tairaa as he stepped forward from his crew.

"I wish to challenge you and your crew to a fight, to see if you are worthy to enter the Grand Line." The man answered in a very serious tone.

"And who exactly are you?" Asked Razar

"I am just a simple mercenary, my name is Kurisu. Now prepare to fight!" Kurisu yelled as he drew out one of his large swords.

"WAIT!" Yelled Razar, "we are not fighting on my ship, lets find somewhere else."

"We are in the middle of the ocean, where do you expect us to fight?" Asked Kurisu

"Well, I think I can solve that problem." Said Akira as he began to shack his hands.

Suddenly the sea began to shake violently, than before anyone could comment, a large flat circular rock island came bursting out of the sea.

"Is that good enough for you?" Akira said laughing silently, gasping for breath.

"Sure, that should be fine." Said Kurisu as he jumped over to the island, which was about the size of an average baseball field.

The rest of the crew followed suit, jumping onto the floating piece of rock. Kurisu stood on one side of the rock and the Wild Cat Pirates on the other.

"Are you sure you want to do this, I mean it is six on one?" Asked Tairaa as Roje and Jeimuzu landed beside him.

"Trust me, that number will be cut down very quickly." Said Kurisu as he pulled out one of his large swords. "Now lets begin!"

"I'll handle this loser." Said Jiiku as he rushed forward towards Kurisu, pulling two swords out from inside his shirt. The air was filled with sounds of clashing metal and the two fought before finally splitting apart.

"Well, I guess you guys are better than I gave you credit for. But I still don't think you're good enough." Kurisu said as he began to lift his sword into the air. "Large Sword Style: Flare Slash." Was all Kurisu said before he quickly changed the angle of his sword sending a blinding flash of light into the eyes of the Wild Cat Pirates.

With all of the crew blinded momentarily, Kurisu took this moment and quickly ran up next to Cora. "I'm sorry," he began to say. "But I don't want an innocent woman to be caught up in this fight." Before quickly smacking his hand into the back of her neck, knocking her unconscious,

Razar regained his vision just in time to see this take place. "YOU BASTARD!!" He yelled as he saw Cora fall to the ground. Razar lost all emotion and sense, caring only about killing the person who had hurt Cora. He blindly charged at Kurisu, not even bothering to draw a sword.

The rest of the crew slowly regained their vision and saw Razar charging at Kurisu, "No, wait, Razar calm down!" Tairaa began to yell, but his futile words never reached the now beast like Razar. Jiiku saw Razar coming at him and tried to stop him.

"Razar wait, we have to work together." Jiiku said trying to get in front of Razar. Even though Jiiku was a comrade, Razar paid no attention to this and saw him as an obstacle to his target. Razar delivered a strong punch to Jiiku's gut and than brought his elbow down and smacked it into his head, causing Jiiku to go flying towards the ground and be knocked out when his face hit the solid stone.

"YOU HURT CORA!" Razar kept screaming as he ran at Kurisu with all his might. Because of his blind fury, Razar paid no attention to strategy and just charged, his predictable rage filled attack was easily dodged by Kurisu who than swung his sword at Razar's chest, causing a large vertical cut, causing Razar to pass out and only than did he come to his senses.

"What are you guys gonna do now, you have been cut down to three." Kurisu said while laughing, 'there is no way you guys can possibly win."

Tairaa, Akira and Bearpaw stood in shock as three of their friends were taken down so easily.

"Well, I think I got an idea." Said Akira, "Try to follow my lead."

Akira quickly slammed his fist into the ground and the ground split open, suddenly a large blue colored rock came flying out.

"I think I know where you're going with this." Said Tairaa as he grabbed the rock out of mid air. "Bearpaw, give me your hand!"

Bearpaw quickly obeyed and stuck out his hand. Tairaa grabbed the rock and slammed it into Bearpaw's hand. Suddenly a flash of blue light covered Bearpaw as a large hand of the blue stone replaced his skin hand.

"Do you know what that is?" Tairaa asked Bearpaw. "It's diamond, the hardest stone known to man." Tairaa quickly fused with Roje and Jeimuzu to get his super powered arms. He grabbed Bearpaw by his arm and spun him and than tossed him with all his might. Bearpaw went flying towards Kurisu who didn't see the diamond hand. He brought his large sword up to block what he thought was a pathetic attack.

By the time Kurisu realized what was going on, it was too late. Bearpaw punched with all his might screaming, "Combo Attack: Diamond Fist!" The punch easily broke through Kurisu's sword and hit him in the chest, sending him flying into a wall of stone that Akira pulled up behind him.

Tairaa and Akira were about to go and get Razar and Cora when Kurisu started to move. They could tell he was severely injured and blood was dripping from his mouth. He spat the blood out to the side. "You think that a pathetic…cough…attack like that will stop me?"

Suddenly a familiar voice came out of nowhere. "Improve Fighting Style: Kick to the Nuts." And before anyone could comment, a foot went straight in between Kurisu's legs and hit him in the crotch.

Before falling in unconsciousness, Kurisu managed to say, "Cheap shot."

* * *

**Thank you for reading, please review, even if you dont wan to be part of the story. And if you do please put up a review and i will send you a message as soon as possible. **

**I don't think my next chapter will be much of a chapter, just basically a short description of all the characters on the crew so far and when more get added i will put them there too.**

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	5. Crew Bio Page

**This is the crew bio page, offering basic information on all the characters in the crew. **

**Note: Most of these characters are from chapters much later in the story, so it may be a bit of a spoiler. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED NEW READERS!**

* * *

**Name: **Tairaa

**Alias: **"Wild Cat" Tairaa

**Position: **Captain

**Devil's Fruit:** Fuse Fuse Fruit- Allows Tairaa to fuse two or more objects together or with himself. Depending on the object Tairaa can hold his fusion anywhere from 5 minutes to 2 hours.

**Description: **Tairaa is a 6 foot tall normal human. He has a muscular build and a light tanned skin. He wears a blue t-shirt covered by a dark purple jacket that he leaves the zipper undone on. He wears a pair of black shorts and sandals. His hair is light brown in colour and ends just before his neck. He hates wearing any type of hat or sunglasses but constantly caries around a necklace with a green diamond in the middle. He walks around with two tiger twins that he found when he was young, named Roje and Jeimuzu. He is a generally calm person and likes to think out strategies before going into battle, but when angered is very hard to calm down.

**Fighting Style: **Fists, and fusing with other animals/objects/people

**History:** Tairaa comes from a small village in North Blue that was attacked when he was a child. He was out playing at the time and escaped being killed, but his mother did not. She gave him a Devil's Fruit she hid from the pirates and gave it to Tairaa before dieing. Remembering his father is apparently a pirate out in the Grand Line, Tairaa set out to follow in his fathers footsteps and explore the world and find One Piece.

* * *

**Name:** Jiiku

**Alias:** "The Idiotic Genius"

**Position:** 1st Mate

**Description:** Jiiku is a 5 ½ foot tall human, with short black hair. He is very thin looking but is still very strong. He wears a black t-shirt and black pants. He is rarely ever seen working out but still has enough physical strength to match that of Tairaa. His style of fighting is called "Improve Fighting." Meaning he fights with whatever weapon is available to him. He is a well-rounded fighter able to use swords, maces, spears, his fists and many more. But is not exceptionally good in any of those areas. He is a very dumb individual and likes to charge into battle without thinking about how to win or what weapon to fight with. Even though he does not think of strategies before his battles, his brute strength and unique fighting style usually allow him to win. Because of his lack of intelligence, Tairaa often scolds him for saying things at the wrong time or acting stupid in front of people.

**Fighting Style:** Improve Fighting

**History:** Jiiku's history is mostly unknown at the time being. Only things that have been confirmed are that he is a child genius in combat and is the son of a Marine Rear Admiral. His wife was arrested for hitting one of the Tenryuubito (even though it was him who did it) and he vowed to never serve for an organization that let people like the Tenryuubito do as they wanted. He joined Tairaa's crew in an attempt to free his wife eventually.

* * *

**Name:** Razar

**Alias:** "The One Man Arsenal" Razar

**Position:** Ship Wright

**Description:** Razar is an 8'6" tall snapping turtle Fish man. Razar as a fish man wear a black spiked multi-layer shell on his back. At the base of his shell, a thick powerful tail hangs between his thick powerful legs. Though a hard shell covers his back, his front is another story. His front looks very much like a human though is a light gray in color. Having trained in various water depths, Razar can stand incredible pressure and with that training he has developed a muscular form and one mean six-pack. His beak shaped mouth is powerful enough to bite a sword in half. His hands and feet have razor sharp claws.

**Fighting Style:** Mainly fists but can use swords

**History:** Razor was friends with the legendary Tom and they both lived at Water 7 until Tom was sent to Enis Lobby. Razar tried to save his friend, but was seriously injured and nearly died from his injuries. He was found by Cora and her father who ran a dojo and they nursed him back to health. Once Razar recovered he asked if he could train to be a swordsman. Cora's father agreed and taught the Fish man Bushihe way of the warrior. During that time Razar and Cora formed a powerful bond and they fell in love. Eventually they left the Grand Line and Water 7 to go live in East Blue, where they eventually met Tairaa and Jiiku.

* * *

**Name:** Cora

**Alias: **"The Dancing Swordsman"

**Position:** Navigator

**Description:** Cora is beautiful woman standing at 6 1/2 foot tall with shoulder length black hair and amber colored eyes. She has a muscular form due to her training at her father's dojo. She usually wears tight tan pants and a button up black vest and wooden sandals.

**Fighting Style:** Dancing Sword Style

**Weapon:** A long sword disguised as a marine rifle

**History:** Cora is the only daughter of Razar's sensei and it was her that found Razar first. Together, her father and her nursed the wounded Fish man back to health. Razar was grateful and when he asked to learn how to be a swordsman, her father agreed. It was during that time the two become very close as friends and it was become of their unique friendship that they soon fell in love with each other. Knowing what had happened to him in his past, Cora fears for Razar and does all she can to protect him even from himself. She follows him with little questions asks and was happy to move to East Blue with him and start a new life.

* * *

**Name:** Akira Kido

**Alias: **Akira "Devil Eye" Kido

**Position:** Marksman/Sniper

**Devil's Fruit:** Tsu Tsu no mi (Earth Earth Fruit)- Allows Akira to control the earth.

**Description:** He wears a navy blue buttoned up shirt, black jeans, black boots, and sunglasses. He has a scar going over his left eye, gotten from an accident on one of his adventures, prior to eating the Tsu Tsu no Mi. He is 6 ft. 4 in. and has light blue hair that goes down to his shoulders. He has lightly tanned skin. His right eye is dark blue while his left is blood red. He is quite careless and very, VERY, accident-prone. Without his Devil Fruit he'd be dead. But, despite that, he's a good man who sees his crewmates as his family. While normally calm, he becomes quite enraged when someone attacks or insults his "family." He's also a very good marksman, claiming the ability to take out flying flies at 300 yards.

**Fighting Style:** A combination of marksmanship and his Devil's Fruit

**Weapon:** An antique pistol that was passed down by his father

**History:** See chapter 12

* * *

**Name:** Bearpaw Jones

**Alias:** "Father Nature" Bearpaw Jones

**Position:** Doctor

**Special Abilities: **The ability to shape shift into any animal that he has seen without the help of a Devil's Fruit. Also the ability to summon the spirits of fire, water, wind and earth to help with attacks.

**Description:** He has jet-black hair that goes to the middle of his back and has an eagle feather in it. He wears buckskin pants and has a string of beads covering his chest. Bearpaw has skin that is golden brown in shade with broad shoulders and muscular arms.

**Fighting Style:** A very fierce hand to hand fighting style

* * *

**Name:** Yura

**Alias:** Yura "The White Haired Mind Witch"

**Position:** Cook

**Devil's Fruit-** Omoi Omoi Fruit (Mind Mind Fruit)- Allows Yura to control minds and most powers usually associated with telepathy

**Description:** She is around five feet tall, with white hair. She has icy blue eyes that are covered by glasses. She has a black t-shirt and black skirt, which has a belt around it, housing a number of cooking knives.

**Fighting Style:** A mix of her Devil's Fruit powers, but is also skilled with knives.

* * *

**Name:** Kurisu

**Alias:** "Prodigy of the Sword" Kurisu

**Position:** Weapon's master

**Weapons:** Kurisu carries two large swords on his back, two medium length swords (katanas) on his waist, one of which is one of the Ō Wazamono, The 21 Great Grade Swords (see chapter 9 for details), and two small daggers in sheaths attached to his boots.

**Description:** Kurisu is just under 6 feet tall. His hair is black and messy, stopping just before his shoulders. His eyes are brown. He wears a large jacket that goes down to about his feet, it is white in color with the area around were the zipper would be colored red. The edge is rugged and spiky, and at his neck the collar is flipped up and goes to his ears.

**Fighting Style:** Kurisu has a set of large swords, a set of katanas, and a set of daggers that each have a separate fighting style to them. The large swords are used for dealing with one powerful opponent of a large group of weak opponents. The katanas are used for speed attacks against a small number of opponents, while the daggers are a last resort.

**History:** Kurisu comes from a family obsessed with sword fighting and all forms of weapon martial arts. Throughout his childhood he showed promise with swords but not with many of the other weapons that the family dealt with. Because of this he was raised using only swords and taught how to make high quality swords. When he was old enough he left his family to travel the world and find strong opponents to fight and increase his sword skills.

* * *

**Name:** Sakie Felgray

**Alias:** "The Song of Battle" Sakie Felgray

**Position:** Musician

**Description:** Sakie has light red hair that goes down to her shoulders, and wears a green shirt that stops just above her bellybutton and a pair of brown pants held up by a black belt. She stands at 5 feet 4 inches and she is usually seen carrying around her guitar in a case but also her glaive.

**Fighting Style:** Fights with her glaive in a variety of attacks that focus on guitar related elements.

**History:** Not explained as of yet.

* * *

**Name:** Damian

**Alias: **"The Blood Red Fox" Damian

**Position:** Combat specialist

**Devil's Fruit:** Kitsune Kitsune No Mi (Fox Fox Fruit), Zoan type fruit that allows Damian to turn into a fox, or a human-fox hybrid

**Description:** Damian stands about 5' 10'' tall and has lightly tanned skin. He has a very muscular build, similar to that of Razar and Bearpaw. He wears a normal white t-shirt and blue jeans. On his hands he has a pair of leather gloves with the fingers cut off and spikes attached to them right over the knuckles.

**Fighting Style:** A street brawler style with many strong one hit finishers

**History:** Unknown before becoming the champion of the arena on Emor.


	6. A Startiling Discovery

**Hey its me. I am super sorry that i did not release this chapter sooner. I had work all summer and i was really preoccupied. Hopefully now that school has started I will be more focused to actually work on this.**

**This chapter was going to be longer and have a new character, but I had delays because of the One Piece manga (if you are not keeping up with it i will not spoil it for you) all i need to say is my new character had almost the same powers as a new character that was released in the manga. I will be talking with my crew's character creators and i will get the next chapter up as soon as possible. Hopefully it wont take more than 2 or 3 weeks.**

**I am sorry to say i am not taking any more requests for characters. I have 10 already and i think that is enough. Please continue to review to tell me how i can improve the story. And if this chapter seems a little bit short i am sorry. I am hoping that i can make the next chapter much longer, i am trying to go for about 5000 words. Now, without further delay, the new chapter.**

**Oh, and i forgot to put this in my other chapters so: Disclaimer- I do not own One Piece or any of its related characters.**

**A New Pirate Crew Emerges - Chapter 6: The Startiling Descovery.**

* * *

Jiiku was laying in a bed, his vision slowly returning, before having the time to take in what happened, he burst out of the b

Jiiku was laying in a bed, his vision slowly returning, before having the time to take in what happened, he burst out of the bed screaming. "That hurt Razar!" there was a slight pause, "Wait, where am I?" Jiiku slowly looked from side to side and saw another bed beside him, he recognized this room, and it was the infirmary on Poseidon's Fury.

Jiiku looked over at the other bed and saw another person lying there. That person began to get up, and it was none other than Kurisu, the man who had attacked the crew. 'It's you!" Jiiku screamed as he jumped out of bed.

Before Kurisu had time to take in what was going on he heard yelling from the side.

"Improv Fighting Style: Chair to the head!" Jiiku screamed as suddenly a wooden chair was slammed into the back of Kurisu's head. He bent over in pain, clutching the back of his head.

"How dare you!" He screamed as he used what strength he had left to pick up a bed.

Tairaa walked in as soon as the bed was lifted, "Oh," he said. "I see you guys are awake." But was suddenly interrupted by a wooden bed being slammed into his face. "What the hell, that hurt!" But before he could react, another bed hit him in the face; this one was swung by Jiiku.

"Jiiku, what the hell are you doing? Why are you hitting me?" Tairaa yelled as he massaged his red face.

"Everyone was doing it; I just wanted to be popular." Jiiku responded with a smirk on his face.

"I'll deal with you later." Said Tairaa while he was walking towards Kurisu.

Kurisu jumped back against the wall. "Don't come any closer!" He yelled.

"We took away your swords; you have nothing to attack with." Tairaa said as he sat down in the one chair that was left in the room.

Kurisu quickly reached down and hit something on his boots and suddenly two small daggers came flying out.

"Except those." Tairaa said as he snapped his fingers. Roje and Jeimuzu quickly came through the door and pinned Kurisu to the floor.

Bearpaw walked through the door and saw Kurisu, "You shouldn't be moving around, we damaged you pretty badly."

"Fine, I know when I am outmatched." Kurisu said as he tossed his daggers to the side. Roje and Jeimuzu slowly released their grip. "So I guess I'm a prisoner now?"

"No, I just couldn't leave an injured man unattended that would be un-doctor like." Bearpaw responded, "You are free to leave anytime you want."

"Good, than I'm out of here." Kurisu said as he got up. "But before I go." Kurisu quickly turned and punched Jiiku square on in the face. "THAT'S FOR KICKING ME IN THE CROTCH! If there is permanent damage down there in away way, I will personally see to your castration." And with that Kurisu left the room.

"I think he likes me." Jiiku said with a smile.

"Whatever, lets get up on deck; I don't want him breaking anything." Tairaa commanded as he started to leave the room.

"It's a bit too late for that captain." Bearpaw said as he walked out into the hallway.

As Tairaa stepped out into the hall he saw the destruction. The walls had been large dents or holes in them, and the word "LOSERS" had been carved into the wall with a dagger.

"Oh, Razar is not going to like this." Tairaa said as he started the slow walk up the stairs that seemed to last for years.

Tairaa emerged onto the deck as the sun was shining in his face. He lifted his hand up to block out the sun. Razar, Cora and Akira stood in front of him. Razar had bandages going across his chest. Kurisu had already jumped off the boat and was on his raft.

Kurisu looked up from his raft to see the Wild Cat Pirates looking down at him. He quickly searched through a bag he had on his raft. He picked out a small snow globe shaped object on a wristband and threw it up to the crew. "You guys are gonna need that to go through the Grand Line." He yelled as the raft started to sail away.

"What is it?" Cora yelled back, slightly frightened by what it might be.

"It's a Log Pose! It will guide you down a path of islands to the end of the Grand Line!" Kurisu yelled, "It is set to the same path as this one I have here." Kurisu pulled out an identical object. "We will meet again, and next time I will emerge victorious!" And with that Kurisu grabbed a paddle and started to row, slowly fading from view of the crew.

"Alright guys, we are going to have a meeting in my office in 5 minutes, everyone must be there. Oh, Razar." Tairaa said with a nervous look on his face.

"Ya, what is it?" Razar answered.

"Kurisusortofdamagedtheshipandyourgoingtohavetofixit." Tairaa said as fast as he possibly could, before running off to his office.

After a lot of screaming and some work by Razar, the ship was fixed and everyone was standing in Tairaa's office.

"Okay guys, I have something to discuss with you." Tairaa said as he sat in his chair, looking at his 5 crewmates.

"Oh, are we gonna have a party!" Jiiku yelled.

"No!" Tairaa said with an annoyed look on his face. "I need to tell you guys how I got my bounty, than I need to ask you guys a few questions. You guys ready?" Tairaa asked hoping his crew would not look down on him for the information he was about to share.

Everyone on the crew nodded, signaling Tairaa to continue.

"Well, I guess I have to start all the way back at the beginning. I was born on a small island in North Blue. I lived there with my mother. My father left when I was born because he was a pirate. One day when I was around 5 years old, I went to the forest outside my town to play. While there I saw a dying tiger mother, with her were two new born tiger cubs. They were Roje and Jeimuzu." Tairaa said petting the two tigers lying beside his chair.

Tairaa continued, "When I ran back to my village several hours later to show my mother, the whole place was burned to the ground, in the distance I could see a pirate ship and a few figures running back to the ship. I was unable to make out the flag of the ship, and even if I did, I was so young I probably don't remember. I ran to my house to find my mother, lying face down in a pool of blood."

Everyone looked on in shock as Tairaa continued his story.

"I walked closer and realized she was still alive. She turned to me and with her last bit of energy handed me a crazy looking fruit. She said that it was what the pirates were after but she managed to hide it, and with that my mother died." Tairaa said trying not to get depressed.

"I managed to survive about a year and a half on the leftover food from the village. Soon Roje and Jeimuzu were able to start hunting and we got more food. Eventually at the age of 10 I left my village, I still had the fruit my mother gave me, afraid to eat it. I landed at an island a couple days later and I got a part time job and managed to have enough money to rent an apartment and pay for classes at a dojo." Tairaa was going to continue but he was interrupted.

"Get on with it already; I really don't need to hear your life story." Jiiku blurted out.

"Fine, anyway, I ended up eating the fruit after I learned it was a Devil's Fruit and I gained the powers of the Fuse Fuse Fruit. The first time I attempted to fuse with Roje and Jeimuzu after practicing with simpler objects, it didn't go so well. Instead of my DNA remaining in control, Roje and Jeimuzu's DNA overpowered mine and I went on a rampage in my cat form. I injured several villagers and destroyed three buildings. I hope you guys will still stand by me even after the things I have done." And with that Tairaa stopped talking.

"Well no duh idiot, I know you'll hopefully never do it again, so why would I leave?" Jiiku answered.

"Ya, totally." Said the rest of the crew, nodding their heads.

"Awesome, thanks guys," Tairaa said. "Now I want you all to tell me something, the reason you have decided to join me. You know I want to be the Pirate King, and as the future Pirate King I can't have a crew that just wants to follow me mindlessly."

Bearpaw stepped forward, "I wish to learn more about the ways of the white mans medicine so I may combine it with my own to be a great doctor able to help many people."

Razar went next, "Well I built this ship and I can't trust you guys to take care of it now can I?" He said with a smile.

Akira spoke up, "I wish to go on the greatest adventure ever, and what other way to do that than travelling to the end of the Grand Line."

Cora started talking in a low voice, "Well, I want to make sure nothing happens to Razar, I will protect him with my life."

Jiiku turned towards Cora, "What is with you? You are always talking about doing stuff for Razar and wanting to protect him, just what is he to you?"

Razar began backing away at this question, his face blushing (if merman can blush, I have no idea).

"Well," Cora started, "You se-see we are sor-sort of like… um"

Suddenly Razar's voice suddenly came out of no where, "We're lovers!" and with this his head went into his shell, trying to hide his embarrassment that he had just told everyone that.

"LOVERS!? YOU TWO!?" Jiiku yelled, and without thinking he started talking again. "But how does that work in b…"

But before Jiiku could finish he was interrupted by Tairaa, "Jiiku stop right there, or do you want to be fused to the toilet again?" And with that Jiiku shut his mouth.

"Well, it doesn't matter. So Jiiku, we're all waiting to hear why you have joined me." Tairaa continued after everyone was quiet.

"Well, the only thing that you guys need to know is that there is someone very important to me that I want to save, and joining a pirate crew is the only way to do that." And with that Jiiku stopped talking.

"Alright, I guess that's good enough, so now guys onto the Grand Li…" Tairaa started

"Wait!" Jiiku yelled suddenly, "There is something I forgot to tell you guys. A messenger bird dropped these the other day." Jiiku pulled out a couple sheets of rolled up paper and a news paper.

Tairaa unrolled the sheets of paper and was amazed at what he saw. Lying in front of him were three wanted posters, of himself, Akira and Bearpaw.

Tairaa's picture was the same as his old picture. Akira's picture showed him with his glasses broken and his blood red left eye. Bearpaw's picture showed him cracking his knuckles staring at the person taking the picture.

"Oh, I remember that. When all those marines were attacking me one ran up with a camera, and when I took out all his friends he ran away, it was so easy to scare him." Bearpaw said after seeing his picture.

The posters read:

"Wild Cat" Tairaa

20,000,000 Beri. Captain of the "Wild Cat" Pirates.

Bearpaw Jones

3,000,000 Beri. Wanted for the attack of marine soldiers. Believed to be travelling with "Wild Cat" Tairaa

Akira "Devil Eye" Kido

8,000,000 Beri. Wanted for the destruction of a marine ship. Believed to be travelling with "Wild Cat" Tairaa.

The crew looked at the story on the front of the newspaper.

**New Pirate Crew Threatening Safety in East Blue.**

_A new pirate crew known as the Wild Cat Pirates has surfaced in East Blue. The crew lead by the wanted man 'Wild Cat' Tairaa is believed to consist of only five to ten people but has already shown it's strength by destroying two marine ships earlier this week. The captains in charge of each ship have refused to comment. The crew is believed to be heading for the Grand Line, anyone with information should contact the Marines._

"Wait destruction of a marine ship. That was me!" Said Jiiku, looking at Akira's poster. "Why did you get the credit?"

"No, this isn't from a couple days ago. I got this bounty a while ago when I was travelling around to some islands." Akira answered

"Speaking of which, why don't you have a bounty Jiiku, I really would have thought they would have given you one." Cora asked.

"Jiiku became flustered at this question. "I have no idea why they would not give me one." Jiiku said fidgeting with his fingers and talking really funny.

"Well whatever. Lets get over that mountain already; we have been sitting here for like 2 days!" Tairaa yelled and the crew began to run out to their posts.

Poseidon's Fury was close to Reverse Mountain and Cora began to yell. "Everybody brace yourself, this is going to be a bumpy ride." And with that the ship hit the intense rapids of Reverse Mountain.

The rapids pulled them up the mountain until they got to the top. As the ship peaked over the top of the mountain, the crew realized that they had just entered the Grand Line, resting place of many pirates.

While the ship was sailing down the mountain. The crew saw something emerging in the distance.

"WHALE!!" Jiiku yelled as the giant head of a whale became visible through the mist of the water.

"HOLY CRAP! That thing must be as large as 100 marine warships!" Razar yelled as the crew plummeted towards the whale.

The whale saw the ship coming towards it, and surprised everyone when it moved to allow the ship to pass. The ship violently hit the water beside the whale, sending waves rocketing into the air.

"Wait, what's that on its head?" Cora asked.

The crew turned around to get a better look.

"It looks like a very poorly drawn pirate flag. I think." Tairaa said as the crew saw what looked like a standard Jolly Roger with some sort of hat on.

"Yup, that would be the flag of the Straw Hat Pirates." Came a voice from beside the ship.

The crew turned to see an old man standing on a raised rock platform that held up a giant lighthouse. The man had all white hair and what appeared like flower pedals growing out of his head.

"Name's Crocus. I am the person in charge of the Lighthouse here at the Twin Capes." The man said.

After a talk with Crocus about the Straw Hat Crew that had been there before them, the Wild Cat Pirates set out on in the direction the Log Pose was pointing.

"Man it has been days and there is still no island in sight. Are you sure we are going the right way Cora?" Jiiku asked while lying on a lawn chair.

"Well the Log Pose says this is the way and according to maps I have read we should be approaching an island soon." Cora answered.

"Instead of complaining, why don't you train or something?" Said Tairaa while doing vertical pushups beside Jiiku."

"GUYS!!" Cora yelled. "I can see an island in the distance, we are finally here."

"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE, WILD CAT PIRATES!" Came a booming voice from the distance.

"Oh man, and we were almost there too!" Jiiku said.

The crew turned around to see a large marine ship right on their tail. A man was standing at the front of the ship. He suddenly jumped extraordinarily high towards the crew's ship. He landed with a loud thud causing floor boards to crack. Now the crew could get a better look at this marine.

He wore a standard marine uniform with the long coat hung over his shoulders. He was fairly tall almost reaching Razar's height. He had long brown hair and a recently shaved beard. He carried two medium sized battle axes on his back.

The rest of the crew came running out onto the deck to see this man standing there.

Jiiku suddenly began to yell, getting into his battle stance. "Get the hell out of here! Or I will force you to leave."

The man began to speak, his voice was very deep and echoed loudly. "Now is that any way to talk to your father? Commodore Jiiku."

**I am hoping that is enough of a cliffhanger to get you to wait for the next chapter.**

**Please review.**


	7. Jiiku's Past

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Hey guys, well its finally here, the newest chapter. I hope you all didn't get too mad about the wait. Now hopefully i can get the next chapter up soon, but you know me by now, it might take a while.

**I'm not sure if i said this in any of my other chapters, so i might as well, I do not own One Piece or any of the related characters that i may happen to mention in this story.**

**Remeber to review please, I really like to hear what you guys think of the story, even if you think that it is really bad, tell me how i can improve that.**

**Now please enjoy A_ New Pirate Crew Emerges, Chapter 7: Jiiku's Past_**

"WHAT!?" The whole crew yelled as they processed the information they had just been told.

"Jiiku, is this guy telling the truth, I mean there is no way you could be a marine, much less a Commodore, right?" Tairaa said with a look of disbelief in his face.

"Go ahead Jiiku, tell 'your friends' how you joined their crew to destroy them from the inside." Jiiku's father said. Laughing at the Wild Cat Crew.

"Guys, guys, I…I…can, I can explain." Jiiku said, stumbling as he tried to avoid the angry stares the crew was giving him.

"This is pathetic Jiiku, what happened to all your courage, speak up!" Yelled Jiiku's father. There was a short pause before he spoke up again. "Fine, if you will not tell them, I will!"

"Many years ago, there was a child declared a genius in combat by his peers. He was so strong that by the age of 8, he had already captured his first pirate with a bounty of 5 million Beri. At the age of 9 he was granted a Captain position on a marine ship and by the age of 10 was already a Commodore. That boy was the son of me, and the man you know as Jiiku. Although, for the past couple months, he has gone off the radar, I am guessing to secretly infiltrate your group. But I will commend you, for you to have survived as long as you have, you must be quite strong." The man said as he laughed at the crew.

Jiiku looked at the crew and sighed. "It is as he says, I am a marine Commodore. But I did not plan to destroy you guys."

Tairaa stared at Jiiku, "Than care to explain?" Tairaa asked not caring a powerful enemy was standing right behind them.

Jiiku took a breath before starting, "Look, I told you guys I wanted to go save someone right? Well, the truth is, many months ago, I happened to get to take a trip to Shabondy Park on the Archipelago Island with my wife, well my soon to be wife. Well, while we were there a member of the Tenryuubito saw my wife and immediately demanded me to hand her over so he could marry her. He said he was getting bored with his other six wives. When I refused he grabbed my wife by force, I went into a blind rage and without thinking I punched him in the gut, knocking him unconscious. Well some guards came and they were about to arrest me when my wife said that she was the one who punched him, the guards instantly took her away and locked her up in Impel Down. I swore on that day, that I would not work for an organization that allowed these Tenryuubito monsters to do as they see fit. Than I went around trying to find people strong enough that I know we could make it that far, to save my wife and I found you Tairaa."

Tairaa finally had a chance to speak and took it "So, if I do believe you, that just leaves one problem, what do we do with him?" He said pointing at Jiiku's father.

"Well, let's try this first." Jiiku said as he turned to his father, there was a pause before Jiiku said, "Dad, can you just leave?"

The crew looked at Jiiku in shock, except Tairaa, who had expected something like this from Jiiku.

"I am afraid that if you will not come back with me, than I will not." The man responded.

"Damn, than that means we have to go with Plan B, "Jiiku said as he got into his battle stance. "WE FIGHT!"

"WHAT!!!!" Cora yelled, "I am not sure if you weren't paying attention, but he is a Rear Admiral, there is no way we can beat him."

"Of course you guys can't, but I think me and Tairaa can do our fair bit of damage." Jiiku said as he turned towards Tairaa, "If we use _that _strategy."

"Great, you guys have a plan." Said Razor, there was a slight pause before he spoke up again, "WAIT, ARE YOU INSULTING OUR FIGHTING ABILITY?!?!"

"No way!" Tairaa yelled, "We can't use _that_, it is way too dangerous, and I can't maintain it that long!"

"We have no other choice; besides, we only need to use it for a short time anyway." Jiiku responded with a look of confidence on his face.

"Fine, but don't blame me if something bad happens." Tairaa said as he got into his battle stance. Roje and Jeimuzu slowly walked forward, but stopped when Tairaa put out his hand. "Sorry, but I can't use you for this."

Suddenly Tairaa's hands began to glow in his normal fashion. But instead of placing them of Roje and Jeimuzu, he put them on Jiiku. A huge flash of light blinded the crew and Jiiku's father, followed by a large burst of air. When the light had dimmed, Tairaa and Jiiku were nowhere to be seen, instead a new warrior stood in their place.

The man wore no shirt, but had the same black jacket as Tairaa with the zipper undone, and the long black pants of Jiiku. The man slowly looked down at himself before he spoke up. "Man, this feels so weird, but I feel so much more powerful. I got to finish this quickly; I can only hold this for about a minute without serious damage."

The crew looked at the man in shock. Finally Bearpaw spoke up, "Wait, did Tairaa just use his powers to fuse himself with Jiiku? I did not think he could do that."

"Neither did we." Said Razor and Cora still half in shock from the sight of this.

"No time to talk." The fusion of Tairaa and Jiiku said. "We can't hold this for long, and please call me Jiiraa (I know it is a weird name, just leave me alone)."

Suddenly Jiiraa disappeared in a flash and appeared behind Jiiku's father.

"That's quite the speed you've got there, and quite the Devil's Fruit." Said the man as he pulled one of his battle axes off his back and swung it towards Jiiraa.

The axe cut through Jiiraa and his body flew into two halves. The whole crew yelled, "HOW! THERE IS NO WAY THEY WOULD GET HIT BY THAT ATTACK!!!"

"I didn't think it would be this easy." Said Jiiku's father in a sarcastic tone, "Now show yourself!"

The crew took this chance to look where Jiiraa had been cut, they saw the sliced in half body slowly begin to turn fuzzy, until it disappeared.

"You can't hit me with that slow axe swing of yours, old man" Came Jiiraa's voice from nowhere. Suddenly Jiiraa appeared in front of Jiiku's father, surprising him as a fist connected with his chin as Jiiraa uppercut him into the air.

Suddenly Jiiraa disappeared again and appeared over Jiiku's father. He brought back his fist for a punch yelling "Tiger Improve Fighting Style: Human Ping Pong!" The fist connected with the man's stomach and sent him flying sideways. Jiiraa than disappeared and appeared behind the man and kicked him in the back sending him back the other way. He disappeared and again appeared behind the man and punched him again. This continued for several hits until Jiiku's father managed to spin around to try and block one of the attacks. Surprisingly no one was behind, and than he heard a voice from above.

"And now the final blow!" Jiiraa yelled as punched Jiiku's father with all his strength, sending him flying back towards the Marine ship.

Jiiraa landed on Poseidon's Fury and quickly separated back into just Tairaa and Jiiku, both of whom looked extremely worn out. Tairaa turned to Razor and yelled, "Get us out of her! NOW!"

Razor quickly obeyed and the sails were soon open and the ship was sailing away.

"Man Jiiku, for a Rear Admiral, your dad was surprisingly easy to beat, even if we did fuse together." Tairaa said as he laid down to rest.

"Of course he was, he wasn't using his full power." Jiiku responded.

"WHAT!?" Yelled the crew, not believing Jiiku.

"Ya, I have fought him numerous times and never has he been that weak, he just wouldn't let us hit him like that. I would say he was using maybe 10% of his power. Otherwise we would have been destroyed." Jiiku said as he also collapsed to rest.

To confirm this Tairaa looked back towards the Marine ship, where Jiiku's father was standing straight up dusting himself off. He yelled back to the crew, "You are pretty good, next time we meet lets hope that I can fight you with my full power!"

The crew took Tairaa and Jiiku down to the infirmary where Bearpaw started examining them. The crew was asked to stand outside to give Bearpaw some room. Minutes later Bearpaw emerged to see the concerned faces of the crew. "Don't worry," he said, "They will both recover, but I have never seen damage like this before, their internal organs are slightly damaged and they did not even get hit. This technique must really take a toll on both people involved, if held too long I believe it would have killed them both."

"You think we didn't know that?" Came a voice from inside the infirmary, it was Tairaa. The crew ran in to see him. When they got inside they saw both Tairaa and Jiiku sitting up in their beds. Roje and Jeimuzu ran in and laid down beside Tairaa's bed.

"There is something that is still bugging me though," said Akira. "You are able to fuse with those tigers of yours for so long without major damage, so why does doing this hurt you so much?"

"Well, it has to do with my Devil Fruit. It is not really the ability to fuse objects and creatures, it is the ability to manipulate DNA so I can take certain characteristics of both things I am fusing and putting them together. Because human DNA is so complicated it is very hard for me to fuse two of it together and make another human, where as even though it is still complicated, tiger DNA is a bit easier to alter into mine." Tairaa said as he pet the two tigers lying beside him.

"Anyway captain," said Razor. "We are almost at the closest island, maybe we should stop there to restock our supplies and get you some good food, I and I'm pretty sure everyone else here is sick of Jiiku's cooking."

"I second that!" Said Akira, "No offense Jiiku, but your meals are just getting old."

"Fine, fine, let's just go already." Said Jiiku upset that his cooking skills had been insulted.

The crew docked the ship and began walking off the ship. Jiiku quickly jumped up and ran back. "Almost forgot." he said as he pulled out what looked like a large chunk of meat and opened a hatch in the floor. He threw the meat in the air and suddenly Birdie came jumping out and grabbed it out of mid-air and quickly swallowed it.

"You must be so bored," Jiiku said, petting the shark, which had his head stuck out of the hatch leading to his aquarium. "You never get to fight anymore, don't worry, soon we will get to." Jiiku turned back to the crew, "Alright, let's go!"

The crew walked down the streets in the town to try and find a small restaurant that would hopefully not have people who recognized the wanted men in the crew. They finally spotted a run down building with a restaurant sign that looked like it was about to fall down. "This place looks fine." Said Tairaa as he walked towards the building.

"I don't know what your standards for 'fine' are, but this certainly looks like a place where we could get mugged." Cora said getting closer to Razor.

"Us, get mugged? Don't make me laugh!" Akira exclaimed as he begin to chuckle. "We are travelling with three wanted men, an eight foot tall merman, and deadly swordswoman, and a child genius when it comes to combat."

"Right, can't believe I was worried." Cora quietly said as he laughed at herself.

The crew walked into the restaurant and saw that it was completely deserted. Tairaa was approaching the bench while thinking, _I wonder if they serve ramen here, that would make me happy. _

Suddenly a women's voice came from behind the kitchen which was behind the main counter and a door. "One ramen coming right up!" This left Tairaa thinking it must have been a coincidence.

Seeing as there was no one else in the restaurant Jiiku spoke up, "But we haven't said anything yet."

The kitchen door soon opened and a woman appeared. She was around five feet tall and had white hair. She had icy blue eyes that were covered by a pair of glasses. She was quite thin and had a black t-shirt with a black skirt. The skirt had a belt suspended around it which held a variety of cooking knives. She scanned the restaurant and realized the crew was the only one there.

She quietly scolded herself, "Damn, I did it again; really need to get that under control."

Tairaa having sharp hearing from being fused to tigers so many times heard this and said, "You really need to get what under control?"

"Nothing, its nothing." The woman said as the crew took their seats at the counter.

Jiiku began to get curious at this and started thinking of a plan. There was a moment of brilliance and Jiiku suddenly spoke up at the woman, "Hey you!" he said, when the woman turned around and looked at Jiiku and a weird look went across her face.

Suddenly the woman got a nosebleed and passed out. Jiiku looked at the rest of the crew, "She's got a Devil's Fruit, seems to be some kind of mind reading one."

The crew began to yell at Jiiku, "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO HER!?!?"

The woman began to regain consciousness as Cora was fanning her face with a paper plate from the kitchen. The first thing she said when she was awake was, "I didn't know that kind of position was possible."

This lead the crew to turn towards Jiiku with an even weirder look on their faces as they yelled again, "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO!?!?"

Jiiku just smirked and said, "An old memory."

"I don't even want to begin to think about what that could mean," Tairaa said as he turned back towards the woman. "Are you okay? What's your name?"

The woman looked up, still seeming a bit dazed and confused. "I'm okay, just a bit dizzy, and my name is Yura." Yura quickly scanned the crew. "Wait, I know you guys."

"Damn it, no you don't, you must still be dizzy." Akira said hoping she wouldn't call the Marines.

"No, I do know you; you are the Wild Cat Pirate Crew." She yelled and jumped back, "I should call the Marines right now."

The crew quickly jumped at this remark and was ready to escape when she spoke up again. "But I won't, I can't let potential customers get arrested now can I."

The crew looked on in a confused look. "So you're not going to sell us out to the Marines because you want some money?" Jiiku said, even his brain a bit confused.

"Basically, and besides, you guys seem to know about my Devil's Fruit." Yura said while preparing food in the kitchen. She came out many minutes later with many different meals ranging from steak to ramen and more. "Dig in!" she said issuing the crew towards the food.

The crew devoured the food, except Cora who was only one to eat with proper manners, disgusted to see all the men stuffing their faces.

"Oh man! This food is fantastic." Tairaa said, slowing down eating so he could talk. "So how does an amazing cook like yourself end up working in a dump like this?"

"Well, it just sort of happened when I moved here. I bought a used old building hoping people would come and I could get the money to renovate, but sadly that never happened." Yura said.

"So, explain to us exactly what this Devil's Fruit you have is?" Akira asked, seeing as most of the crew wanted to know.

"Well," Yura said, "It is called the Omoi Omoi Fruit, or Mind Mind Fruit. And it basically allows me to do what the name implies, I have the ability to read minds, put my thoughts in others minds, control certain people, and move things with my mind."

"Wow, that's incredible!" Said Tairaa, who suddenly got a look across his face. He turned to the crew members on his left who nodded, and turned to the ones on his right who nodded as well. With that he turned towards Yura and said, "Yura, how would you like to come with me and my crew on our journey through the Grand Line to find One Piece?"

Yura paused for a second to take in the information; she suddenly spoke up again in a happy tone, "Sure! I have always wanted to leave this dump of a town and learn what the world has to offer."

And with that it was decided, Yura passed out some sake and the crew lifted their glasses up in the air. "TO OUR NEW CREW MEMBER AND COOK, YURA!!! BANZAI!!!"

The crew drank their drinks and Tairaa spoke up again. "Well, if you are gonna be part of the crew, you have to meet everyone. I of course, am the Captain, Tairaa. You already know our second in command, Jiiku. Over there is our shipwright Razor." Who gave a small wave. "Over there is our sniper, Akira Kido. That man there is our Doctor, Bearpaw Jones. And last but not least, our swordswoman and lover of Razor," Who blushed at the comment, "Cora!"

"It is very nice to meet you all, I hope we all don't die on the Grand Line!......... I mean get along! Sorry about that, bad habit." Yura said, as the rest of the crew laughed.

The crew finally started walking out. Tairaa grabbed Jiiku and pulled him back so they could walk behind the group. He leaned over and whispered to Jiiku, "One day, you are going to have to tell me what you showed her." He said snickering.

Jiiku laughed and patted Tairaa on the back, "The amount of things I could teach you."

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**Well, hope you guys enjoyed that chapter, please I can't stress this enough, please review. Its not that hard, don't be lazy. Click the button and type stuff, you don't even need an account.**

**I hope i can get the next chapter up soon and continue this story for a long time to come.**

* * *


	8. Major Conflict

**Well I finally made the new chapter, I really hate keeping my 10 fans waiting for so long, but I am a huge procrastinator. **

**Once again I do not own One Piece or any of the related characters, and PLEASE REVIEW. I keep only getting reviews from the people who have characters in the story, please take the time to tell me if my writing style could use work or if you really like the story.**

**Well without further delay, here it is:**

**A New Pirate Crew Emerges: Chapter 8- Major Conflict**

It was another day on the ship of the Wild Cat Crew. Tairaa was training on the main deck with Roje and Jeimuzu, focusing on holding his fusion for a much longer time. Jiiku was sleeping on deck, while Razar tried to yell at him. Cora was in the observation deck looking out for ships and islands. Yura was busing making the crews lunch. Akira and Bearpaw were practicing their skills by fighting each other.

Tairaa looked around at everyone working hard, and than saw Jiiku. His patience had finally run out and he walked over to Jiiku. "What are you doing?" Yelled Tairaa, "we just got our asses handed to us and you still spend all your time sleeping!"

Jiiku stood up at this comment and just laughed, "I don't need to train, I'm a genius, it will come to me on the battlefield."

"Alright than, let's prove that, a friendly duel, you and me." Tairaa exclaimed, "We will see if you are really as much of a genius as you say you are."

Jiiku just nodded and Tairaa and him walked into position in the middle of the ship. The crew noticed this and gathered around to watch their two strongest members duke it out.

They started by bowing at each other and getting into fighting position. Jiiku was the first to attack, jumping forward and punching out at Tairaa's head. Tairaa quickly jumped to the side and sent his elbow out towards Jiiku's stomach, which Jiiku quickly grabbed the elbow and pushed off it to fly backwards.

Upon landing, Tairaa was already close to him and did a spinning kick at his legs, which Jiiku quickly jumped over, but was unprepared when Tairaa sent a kick towards his stomach, getting hit and sent flying backwards.

Jiiku landed and once again charged at Tairaa, managing to punch him in the chest. On his next charge, Jiiku once again went for a punch towards Tairaa's chest, but Tairaa saw through it. He pushed Jiiku's arm off to the side, grabbed his wrist, and used his other arm to grab Jiiku's elbow and throw him in the air while spinning him forward.

As Jiiku was falling back down and just at Tairaa's eye level, Tairaa started to punch and Jiiku braced for the impact. Suddenly Tairaa's arm was stopped, and Jiiku was floating in the air. Bearpaw was holding onto Tairaa's elbow and Yura was using her powers to slowly lower Jiiku down.

Bearpaw let go of Tairaa and turned away from him, "That was a bit much for just a sparring match wasn't it?" Bearpaw asked.

"Yes, you guys should not go all out just over a little bit of anger." Yura added.

The crew looked back to see Jiiku and Tairaa high fiving, with big grins on their faces.

"Just like old times, eh Jiiku?" Tairaa said, still laughing.

"Totally, but you got to teach me how to do that thing you did at the end there." Jiiku responded.

The two walked away towards the kitchen, continuing their conversation. The whole crew looked on in shock, "THEY WEREN'T ANGRY AT ALL!!!" They all yelled in unison.

A few days later, as Tairaa sat in his office, writing in his journal, Cora burst into the room. "Captain, we have spotted an island off in the distance, should we prepare to dock?"

Tairaa turned towards his map and looked at their current location, than he responded, "Sure, we need to refuel and resupply anyway."

Tairaa followed Cora out onto the deck, and was amazed at the island he saw before him. It was a relatively small sized island, possibly able to fir 4 or 5 small towns. But in the centre of the island stood a great castle, with many different towers that could be seen even across the great distance there was between the crew and the castle.

The crew disembarked from the ship and began to walk around the village they docked the ship at. Lush green plant life grew all over this island, occasionally growing onto houses.

The village looked amazing, with many large houses and plenty of shops around. But there was one thing the crew couldn't wrap their heads around.

Yura was the one to speak up, "I don't understand, from the look of the houses the people here should all be pretty wealthy, but there appear to be a lot of boarded up houses and homeless people."

It was true, the crew looked around and many of the luxurious looking houses had boards across the doors, and there were many people out on the street begging for money. The crew approached one of the shop owners who ran what appeared to be a weapon shop.

"Excuse me sir, could you tell us why so many of your people seem to be in poverty?" Yura asked as she approached the man.

Suddenly the town clock tower started ringing, signifying it was 12 o'clock. Around them the crew began to hear the sound of many residents packing up their shops and closing their windows. "That is never a good thing to hear." Razar mentioned as the crew started scanning around the village to see what was going on.

Suddenly the man they were talking to disappeared and silence fell over the town. The crew waited for a second before they began to hear footsteps coming from down the road. "What are we in an old western movie or something, what the hell is this?" Jiiku remarked.

"What's a movie?" Asked several members of the crew.

"Never mind." Jiiku replied

The footsteps got louder until the crew could finally make out what was causing them. Three men were walking down the road, one slightly in front of the other two. The one in the front had a trench coat on that went down to his knees, a dark shirt and pair of dark jeans. He slowly walked forward with his other two men until he spotted Tairaa.

"Hey you!" He shouted as he began to approach the crew. "You guys don't seem to be locals; I'll need you to pay up."

"Pay up for what exactly?" Tairaa said as he walked towards the man.

"Why taxes of course, and since you aren't from around here, your going to need to pay a bit extra for 'protection' if you know what I mean." The man answered, nudging Tairaa lightly.

Jiiku suddenly burst out laughing, "Oh man, that's funny. It sounds like you just tried to threaten us." Jiiku wiped a tear from his eye and continued laughing.

"I wouldn't be laughing if I was you boy." The man said, "We work for the ruler of this land, and he doesn't take kindly to people not paying their taxes."

"Well from the looks of this village, it seems your 'taxes' are a little bit to high." Akira said as he walked towards the man. "I mean the people run in fear when they see you coming, the people you work for can't be that great of rulers."

"HOW DARE YOU INSULT US!" The man yelled as he sent a punch towards Akira's face. The fist was quickly caught by Razar.

"You probably shouldn't do that, unless you think you can take on all seven of us on your own." Razar said as he began crushing the man's hand.

The man began to scream in pain and than Tairaa spoke up, "Razar let him go. He's only a pathetic little henchman, no need to go all out."

Razar let go of the man's hand and the man started to run along with his two other men. "You haven't heard the last of us!" He yelled as he ran into the distance, "You will get a hell of a waking tomorrow, I guarantee it."

"As long as I get some sleep its fine!" Jiiku yelled back laughing.

"Well, shall we look for an inn?" Cora said as the crew looked around the village to see everyone coming out of their houses.

"Maybe we did such a great thing driving those people away that people will give us rooms for free." Bearpaw said as the people began to approach them.

Suddenly Tairaa was hit over the head with a broom. A man came out and began to yell at the crew, "Do you realize what you just did!"

Tairaa stood there rubbing his head, "No, and who are you anyway to just go around whacking people over the head with brooms?"

"I am the mayor of this town, and you have just doomed us all!" The man yelled at Tairaa.

"Well why don't you tell us what exactly is going on in this place, than maybe we can help." Tairaa said.

"Hey Tairaa, not sure you noticed, but we are something called 'pirates', we usually plunder and steal from people like this, not help them out." Razar said as he looked at all the frightened villagers.

"Well I don't want to be a pirate like that, I just want to find One Piece and be the strongest person in the world, and the only way to do that is to be a pirate." Tairaa responded quickly. "Anyway, continue your story mayor."

"Well it all started a couple weeks ago." The man started. "Our old king, King Jooji had been ill from a disease for many years and his condition was worsening, he began to fear his death and appointed his son, Prince Chaarusu as the successor to the throne. But only hours after that announcement, the King's Royal Guard burst into the throne room, murdered King Jooji and the head of the Royal Guard declared himself King."

"That's terrible, and what happened to the Prince?" Cora asked.

"He is safe," started the mayor. "He managed to escape the castle the night of the murder, and is now hiding in a place we cannot tell even you, for his own protection."

"That makes sense; I guess you still can't fully trust us." Akira said as he looked around town. "Hey, do you guys have an inn we could stay in for the night? It would be easier to fight these guys when we have all our energy."

"Yes we do," the mayor replied. "We also have a kitchen that you can…. WAIT WHAT!?!? You are going to fight the new King?"

"Most certainly," Bearpaw said, "We cannot let this form of treachery continue in such a peaceful land….and besides, I have been waiting for a good fight for a while now."

The crew was led to the nearest inn, and Yura was given full use of the kitchen. The crew sat in the main dinning room of the inn and enjoyed Yura's delicious cooking. Suddenly a load voice was heard from outside the inn.

"WILD CAT CREW!!!! SHOW YOUR COWARDLY FACES!!" A man yelled from outside.

The crew quickly ran out of the building, most of the men still eating the food they had been given. In front of the crew, just outside the village, was a large group of soldiers almost equaling a small army.

"YOU HAVE INSULTED OUR GREAT LEADER AND REFUSED TO PAY TAXES!!!! FOR THIS YOU HAVE BEEN SENTENCED TO PUBLIC EXECUTION!!!" The man at the front of the army yelled.

"What is this, execution by army, why bring such a large force!" Tairaa yelled back.

"We anticipated that you will not come quietly, so if we have to drag you back to the castle than that is what we will do." The man yelled.

"Well you sort of guess wrong, because we are not going at all!" Razar yelled.

"Than prepare to face this entire army and die right here on the spot." The man yelled as he turned to yell at the troops.

The army began pulling out their weapons and looked ready to charge.

"Wild Cat Pirates! Prepare for battle!" Yelled Tairaa as he got into his battle stance.

"Tairaa, from what I can tell, none of them are carrying any guns, they intend to come at us with just swords." Akira stated scanning the battlefield with his very sensitive sniper eyes.

"Mistake number one." Tairaa said.

Suddenly a group of soldiers ran forward towards the crew.

"Captain, they appear to be sending the troops in waves." Cora pointed out.

"Mistake number two."

"Tairaa, they don't seem to have any specific target, I think they intend to take us all on at once." Razar said as he pulled out two swords.

"Mistake number three." Tairaa sighed as he dropped his battle stance. "Jiiku, do you want to take these first guys on your own…….Jiiku?"

Everyone looked over where Jiiku was supposed to be standing and he was gone.

Suddenly everyone heard a loud voice, "IMPROV FIGHTING STYLE!!!"

"EVERYONE!! JUMP BACK!!" Tairaa yelled as he jumped back as many meters as he could.

The first wave of soldiers stopped moving as they heard the scream.

"HULK SMASH!!" The voice that had been identified as Jiiku's, yelled.

One soldier had a second to ask, "What's a Hu…." Before a human figured slammed into the ground in the middle of all the soldiers and the ground exploded outwards. The group of twenty five soldiers was sent flying into the air, many being knocked unconscious once they hit the ground.

From the center of the small crater left from the impact, dust was swirling around a central point. In that dust, the crew saw a shadow of a large figure; he had huge muscles and had what appeared to be glowing red eyes. The creature began to walk away from the dust and the crew was slightly scared of what it was or what Jiiku had done. When the dust finally settled, the crew just saw the regular Jiiku standing there with a grin on his face.

The whole crew dropped to the ground and got back up. "I'm not going to even ask how he did that." Akira stated. The whole crew nodded in agreement.

Suddenly the entire army charged at the crew. "Now this is going to be fun." Tairaa said as he began to chuckle.

Yura stepped up first. She held out her hand and simply said, "Mind Pulse." A large purple shockwave was sent from her hand and impacted into many of the troops, sending them flying backwards into other troops.

Cora than pulled out her sword and put the sheath in her other hand, she quickly analyzed the troops running at her and said quietly, "Dancing Sword Style: Break-dance." She dropped to the floor and began spinning, slipping under the legs of many troops and quickly cutting them, she than pushed up of the ground and did a front flip in the air, still cutting the troops. She landed on her hands and quickly went into a headstand and began to spin, slicing the remaining soldiers that were around her.

Akira quickly slammed his foot into the ground and two large rocks burst from the earth. Akira yelled, "Tsu Tsu Double Shotgun!" As he punched the two rocks and they exploded into many pieces, still larger than a human head and slammed into the incoming soldiers.

Meanwhile Bearpaw and Razar were both busy punching and slamming the soldiers into the ground. "Damn them, with their fighting styles and new attacks. We should probably come up with a few one of these days." Razar said as he punched a soldier in the gut and grabbed another soldier's face and beat him against another soldier.

"Agreed." Bearpaw said as he turned into a bear and began clawing the nearby soldiers.

Tairaa was quickly taking out one soldier after another while his tigers, which were separated from him, took out some as well. "Damn, this is going to take way too long. Jiiku, use that attack!" he yelled as he began to attack the people going after his tigers.

Jiiku quickly got really happy and almost got hit by a sword coming at him. "Really? I can use it? AWESOME!" he replied as he tripped a guy and punched him in mid-air into the ground. He than jumped back and took out a scroll from his pocket and threw it high into the air.

Tairaa jumped away from his opponents and yelled to the crew, "Everyone get back! Everyone behind Jiiku!" The crew than quickly ran behind Jiiku and prepared to see this attack.

Tairaa than hit his hands together in his typical style, but this time he moved one hand as if he was throwing a ball. The flash of light travelled from Tairaa's hand and hit the scroll that was in the air. The scroll slowly began to unravel and before anyone could say anything, swords began to fall out. There were hundreds of swords falling hilt first towards Jiiku.

Jiiku quickly lifted up his hands and began grabbing the swords and throwing them towards the army at a blinding speed. No one could see Jiiku's arms because of how fast they were moving. In a couple of seconds Jiiku began to slow down and than stopped entirely, breathing heavily.

Cora looked around the battlefield and saw that all of the soldiers had been hit by at least one sword each, they were all lying on the ground screaming in pain. "Wow, that was amazing Jiiku, you hit every single one of them and I don't think you killed a single one."

Jiiku quickly punched the ground yelling, "Damn it I missed!"

The crew dusted themselves off and went back into the inn.

"Well now that that is over with, how are we going to attack this guy tomorrow?" Tairaa said

"It will not be easy, I can guarantee you. The castle is over in that direction," The mayor said pointing towards the center of the island. "The castle looks something like this."

The mayor than got a large piece of paper and drew a large circle in the middle. On the north, east, south, and west ends of the paper he drew smaller circles and connected them to the large middle circle with lines. Than he drew a large box around the whole thing.

"That looks almost exactly like the World Government Flag." Yura stated

"Yes, that's exactly right. The original designers of this castle wanted to show tier loyalty to the World Government so they built the castle like this." The mayor responded. "But anyway, if you manage to get past the front gate, you have even greater of a problem. These four towers," The mayor pointed to the four smaller circles, "are the only way into the main building. But the thing is that there is a switch in each tower that has to be pulled at the same time to open the gates to the main building."

"Alright, so we will divide into 4 different teams in order to activate all these switches at once." Tairaa said as he began to plan out the teams.

"But Tairaa, we only have seven people, that will leave one person fighting in that tower all on their own, we can't take that risk, what are we going to do?" Cora asked in a concerned voice.

Suddenly a voice came from the back of the inn, "Maybe I can be of some help."

The crew all turned around and was amazed at who they saw.

* * *

**Well thanks for reading and I hope you liked it, please review and I'll try and have the next chapter up as fast as i can if I get alot of reviews telling me to continue, for all I know you people could want me to stop entirely.**

* * *


	9. The Liberation Part 1

**Well I'm back once again. I have managed to finish another chapter after much pestering from my friends and other people to get chapters out more often, which I guess i still didn't really do but whatever.**

**I am quite happy with myself because this chapter was probably the longest one i have written, without the author's note, it is exactly 5,555 words, a bit creepy. But anyways, enjoy the chapter and remember to review. Lastly I have to thank darkexcaliber13 for being the first person to review who doesn't have a character in the story or is gettting a character in. Well here it is:**

**A New Pirate Crew Emerges, Chapter 9: The Liberation Part 1**

Behind the crew stood a man they all recognized, it was Kurisu.

The entire crew quickly jumped up yelling "YOU!"

Kurisu rose his hands in defense, not wanting to start violence at this moment. "Whoa guys, don't worry, I'm not here to hurt you, I was just passing by and happened to hear about your little dilemma. So what do you guys say, can we put that other stuff behind us and work together?"

"What's with the sudden change of attitude?" Tairaa asked as he approached Kurisu with caution. "Last time I'm pretty sure you were trying to kill us." The rest of the crew nodded in agreement.

"Ok, look. After we had the battle I realized you guys are actually quite powerful. I decided that I had to catch up with you again to see just how far you would make it." Kurisu responded.

"Really, are you sure you don't have some other reason for following us? Do you possibly wish to join us?" Razar said, "Seeing as we are clearly better than you are you want to learn from the best."

Before anyone could say anything, Kurisu had already run up to Razar and placed his katana at his neck. "Try saying that one more time, I dare you."

Kurisu quickly backed up and put his katana back in the sheath on his belt. "Sorry, I guess I'm still quick to anger."

"Alright, I guess we have no choice but to let you help us, but after this operation what you do is up to you." Tairaa said as he gathered the crew together. "So how shall we divide ourselves?"

"I think that I should go with Cora!" Razar yelled out.

"No, we can't risk you going crazy again if she happens to get hurt." Tairaa responded as he placed his hand at his chin, slowly rubbing it while thinking. "Here is what I think, we divide the crew into groups who have similar abilities."

"And how exactly do you propose we do that, many of us are Devil's Fruit users?" Yura asked as she thought over Tairaa's plan.

"Cora shall come with me since we are the two fastest people here, this will allow us to slip past the guards and get to the north tower." Tairaa explained while tracing the path on the map with his finger. "Razar and Bearpaw will go as our central attack force; they will break through the initial defense and go straight to the south tower. Akira and Yura will go as our long range squad, covering us from a distance before proceeding to the east tower once the rest of us are inside."

"Wait, that just leaves…" Bearpaw said as he slowly looked to the side.

"US!!!!" Jiiku and Kurisu yelled as they both came to the realization that they would be paired up.

"Yes, you guys will head towards the west entrance." Tairaa said ignoring the screams coming from both Jiiku and Kurisu.

After a long night of arguing and insults that should not be said around children, Tairaa finally convinced Kurisu and Jiiku to work together.

The next morning the crew took the time to go over the plan one last time.

"So we each spilt into teams and get into each tower, one of each group will stay behind to pull the lever to let the other of each group into the center. Does that about sum it up?" Razar asked as Tairaa had just finished going over the plan.

"Yes, but I have one question Mayor." Tairaa said as he turned to the mayor. "What kind of resistance can we expect in each tower and than in the center building?"

"Well each of the four towers is set to a specific task, the north is the Guard Captain's Quarters, east is the mess hall, south is the barracks and west is the armory. You can expect multiple people in each tower and usually one strong opponent guarding the switches. As for the center, you will find the King and his three elite guards, do not underestimate any of those people, they are equal to tons of regular soldiers." The Mayor responded.

"Well that always makes things interesting." Akira said as he was cleaning his pistol.

"So Tairaa, who of each group is going to stay to pull the lever and who is going to the middle?" Bearpaw asked.

"I think that it should be myself, Razar, Jiiku and Akira who continue towards the middle." Tairaa answered, "Is that fine with everyone?"

"Sure." The rest of the crew responded.

"I'M NOT!" Kurisu yelled

"Look Kurisu, I'm sure you want to fight the elite guards, but we can't really trust you yet, and I bet you understand why. Plus in case of emergency, Jiiku is more useful to us than you." Tairaa responded "Well, if that's all, than lets get going. Wild Cat Pirates, move out!"

The Mayor and citizens looked dazed at the Wild Cat Pirates as they walked out of the inn to what seemed like certain doom.

Just before they got to the castle, Yura spoke up. "Oh ya, I almost forgot but a shop keeper gave these to me in hopes they would help us." Yura quickly proceeded to hand a small Den-Den Mushi attached to a wrist strap to the four members that would be pulling the levers. "This will allow us to time when we pull the levers so the others can get in."

"Thanks Yura," Tairaa responded as the team reached the gate of the castle. "Razar and Bearpaw, if you wouldn't mind politely knocking."

From inside the castle, a load thudding noise could be heard. The gatekeeper walked out towards the door yelling, "Hold on, I'm coming, calm down."

Just before the gatekeeper got to the gate, the two doors came flying off their hinges and hit the gatekeeper, sending him flying.

The soldiers inside the castle looked down to see Razar and Bearpaw with their fist outstretched showing they had just punched down the door.

The crew looked forward into the courtyard to see soldiers all charging at them. "Well Razar, Bearpaw, do your stuff. Cora follow me!" Tairaa said before Cora, Roje, Jeimuzu and himself slipped off to the side at incredible speeds.

Bearpaw quickly jumped into the air and said, "It took me all night to learn this and name it! SPIRIT OF THE EARTH: ENTANGLE!" Bearpaw slammed his fist into the ground and roots burst forth from the ground and began to tie around the soldiers feet, holding them in place.

"Nice one, now its my turn." Razar said, "I never like doing this but I guess I must." Razar reached onto his back and actually pulled off his shell, still leaving the base on his back but taking the curved part in his right hand. He than got a sword in his left hand and ran at the trapped soldiers yelling "Shell Slam!" Before quickly swinging his shield through a crowd of soldiers and hit them in the head, knocking them unconscious.

Razar and Bearpaw than proceeded to fight the remaining soldiers to give the others time to get around.

"Well guess that's our queue." Kurisu said as Jiiku and him ran to the side towards the west tower.

Razar and Bearpaw were still fighting when they got completely surrounded. The soldiers kept charging at them and they Razar was having a hard time defending his back with his shell in his hand. A soldier managed to get behind him and was just about to hit him in the back when he was hit in the side of the head by a flying rock. Razar than put his shell back on his back and pulled out his other sword, "Thanks for the save Akira," Razar said as he continued to slice the soldiers. "You guys get going, we got this covered from here."

"Alright, we'll head out." Akira said as he slammed his hand into the ground and made a giant rock come up and hold him in the air. "Need a lift?" He said looking down at where Yura should have been, but she was no longer there.

"That won't be necessary." Came Yura voice. Akira looked to the side to see Yura surrounded in a purple aura hovering in the air. "Did you think I could only levitate other objects with this power?" she said laughing slightly. They than headed towards the east tower.

Tairaa and Cora arrived at the north tower with very little people noticing and they were able to quickly dispatch those who saw them. They than slowly began to open the door to the north tower. Once they did they saw two guards standing there with a Den-Den Mushi that they were about to talk in to.

Roje and Jeimuzu quickly jumped on both men, holding them on the ground. Tairaa and Cora walked over to the two men, who were shaking in fear.

"Now you guys wouldn't happen to know where the lever to the main entrance is, now would you." Tairaa asked in a scary tone.

The men simply pointed towards a set of stairs leading up to the top of the tower.

"Thank you, now you two have a nice nap." Tairaa said before punching both men in the face and knocking them unconscious.

"Report north tower! Report!" Came a voice from the Den-Den Mushi the soldiers had been using.

"Cora, you head up the stairs to the lever, I'll distract the soldiers to give you a clear passage." Cora was just about to leave before Tairaa spoke again, "Cora, this is suppose to be the Guard Captain's Quarters, you watch yourself up there."

"Don't worry, there's no way I'm going to lose before we get One Piece" Cora said smiling as she ran up the stairs.

Tairaa proceeded to pick up the Den-Den Mushi and turned it on, "This is Wild Cat Tairaa, I would like to beat the hell out of the new king on behalf of the villagers, would some soldiers come out and kindly lead me to him?" Tairaa said chuckling.

"LIKE HELL WE'LL LET YOU HARM THE KING! PREPARE TO BE KILLED!" Responded the voice from the Den-Den Mushi.

Tairaa than hung up the Den-Den Mushi, "Exactly what I wanted." Suddenly the gate to the center building opened for a slight moment to allow soldiers to pass through and begin running down the hall towards Tairaa. The gate than closed and was resealed. "Well, guess I better take care of you guys fast." Tairaa said before charging towards the men with Roje and Jeimuzu.

Meanwhile, at the entrance to the west tower, Jiiku and Kurisu had just defeated the guards outside the tower and were opening the door to get inside. Kurisu had one of the soldiers from outside gripped by the collar in his right hand. He lifted the man in front of his face and said, "Now, I'm guessing the lever to open the main gate is at the top of this tower, isn't that right?" The man simply nodded his head. "Now there better be someone powerful up there for me to face, want to tell me who it is?"

The soldier coughed before talking, "Our training master is up there and *cough* no matter how powerful you guys are you will never *cough* defeat him, he could take you down with one hand." The soldier than passed out and Kurisu threw him to the side.

"Well at least I can have some sort of a challenge." Kurisu said while checking his swords. "Jiiku you can go ahead and have fun or whatever, but you better not die, I'm going to be the one to have that privilege."

"Alright whatever, I'm going to try some of these weapons." Jiiku said as he inspected the many weapons mounted on the wall

"GET AWAY FROM THOSE!" Came a voice from down the hall. Jiiku looked to see many soldiers looking at his with their weapons drawn.

"Have fun Jiiku." Kurisu said as he began to run up the stairs to the top of the tower.

Jiiku quickly grabbed a staff off the wall and charged at all the soldiers, grinning with his classic smile.

At the east tower Akira and Yura had just dropped from the sky onto several unsuspecting soldiers, missing only one who Akira quickly pinned to the ground with rock. "Now Yura, if you wouldn't mind making our little friend open the door for us." Akira said as he looked over at Yura who was already in a trance looking at the enemy soldier.

Suddenly the man's eyes turned purple and Akira released him from the rock. The soldier than proceeded to walk towards the door and slowly open it, Akira looked over at Yura and saw that she was concentrating very hard, "Better not ask her to do this very often, makes her an open target." Akira remarked as he looked into the tower.

The tower was very large and had many tables pressed together to make long rows and many plates of food that looked like they had been quickly abandoned. Once Akira saw the room was clear he told Yura to stop controlling the soldier, who proceeded to pass out on the floor.

Akira and Yura walked into the mess hall and saw the set of stairs leading to the top of the tower. Yura started to run up the stairs when suddenly a very large soldier came out of where the food was served. He was around 7 feet tall and was quite fat.

"Yura, you keep going, I can handle this guy!" Akira yelled at Yura, who reluctantly continued up the stairs. "Well I guess it's just you and me now, big boy!"

Bearpaw and Razar had just finished with the last of the soldiers from the main gate and went to the south tower and quickly punched down the door, ready for another attack. Surprisingly no one was inside the tower and the two walked in calmly. The two looked around and could not see a set of stairs, but Bearpaw quickly spotted a ladder going to the top and went over and began climbing it.

After Bearpaw was out of site, Razar started to walk around, "Well for a barracks, this place is quite deserted." Razar turned to see a door open and three men with swords come out of the training room. "Well never mind." Razar said as he charged at the three men with his swords out.

Cora had gotten to the top of the stairs and could still hear the sound of the battle below. She continued to walk forward and entered a very large room. She could see the lever at the other end of the room, she than lifted her miniature Den-Den Mushi to her mouth and said, "This is Cora, I'm at the lever and am ready to pull it."

"I don't think so little missy." Came a voice from the side of the room. Suddenly a man appeared from the shadows. He stood at 6 and half feet tall and wore a full suit of armor. A four foot long katana was sheathed on his back.

Without warning the man burst forward and drew his sword and swung it at Cora. Cora quickly drew her sword and blocked the swing, but the force pushed her back several feet. _Damn he's strong_ Cora thought, _But let's see if he's fast!_ Cora suddenly slipped to the side and spun to get behind the man and swung at his back.

The man quickly spun around and blocked the sword. Cora jumped back and landed several feet away. The man than spoke up, "Well aren't you a feisty one. Since you didn't die from the first strike that means you are quite skilled, so I might as well introduce myself, I am Guard Captain…" But the man was cut off when Cora jumped forward and tried to stab at his arm. He jumped to the side and dodged the attack. "Guess your not one for introductions, very well, let's fight!"

The man jumped forward and slashed multiple times at Cora, who managed to block them all. She was slowly being pushed back when she slipped under him and slashed at his legs, though her sword simply bounced off the armor.

Cora was scanning the man quickly when he spoke up, "You are trying to find a flaw in my armor are you not?" The man asked, "Well guess what? There is none, this is one solid piece of armor that has no linking parts for you to cut! What are you going to do now?" The man began to laugh as Cora charged forward.

Cora jumped into the air and kicked the man in the face, sending him stumbling backwards and knocking off his helmet.

The man got up, extremely angered, "HOW DARE YOU TOUCH ME!" He dashed forward and slashed at Cora, who blocked. He than punched Cora in the stomach sending her flying back, slamming her into the wall.

Cora coughed as she stood back up; she lifted her sword back up and got back into her battle position. She ran forward at the man and he swung his sword down at her. She ducked under the sword and got behind the man and jumped onto his back, she began to pull against the middle of the armor as if trying to rip it in half.

Suddenly from inside the armor, the sound of buckles snapping could be heard, suddenly the top part of the armor spilt in half and fell to the ground. The man turned around to swing at Cora but she had already jumped off and landed several feet away. Cora could now see the man as he stepped out of the legs of his armor, he was still very large without the armor, he had a fair build and messy black hair that covered most of his head.

"I knew there was no way that your armor was one piece, you have to get in it every day. So I figured that your chest piece must be somehow connected on the inside, and it looks like I was right." Cora said as she breathed heavily from the intense battle.

"Fool, you have just doomed yourself to death, all this armor does is slow me down. You are about to experience a whole new battle!" The man said as he disappeared quickly and appeared behind Cora.

Cora managed to spin around and block his sword just as he brought it down towards her head. Cora swung her sword towards the man's chest, but he jumped high in the air and landed behind Cora.

The man swung his sword at Cora's back, Cora attempted to jump out of the way but did not jump far enough and the sword sliced her back, leaving a large cut. Before Cora could react, the man grabbed her by the throat and pinned her against the wall, causing her to drop her sword.

"You put up a valiant effort woman, I am very sorry, but I must kill you now." The man said as he stabbed his sword towards Cora's head. At the last second, Cora leaned her head to the side and the sword lodged itself in the wall. The man let go of Cora to grab his sword with both hands, but that was all the time Cora needed.

Cora quickly kicked the man in the chest, sending his sliding backwards, but he managed to stay on his feet. Cora grabbed her sword off the floor and rushed forward with all the strength she had left.

The man lifted his hand and tried to punch at Cora, who quickly slipped around the punch and said, "Dancing Sword Style: Final Curtain." Before the man could see what happened, Cora was behind him. She was putting her sword back in her sheath when she said, "Ladies and Gentlemen, the show has ended." Suddenly, a large diagonal cut appeared across the man's chest and a large amount of blood came flying out. The man fell to the floor and lost consciousness.

Bearpaw had reached the top of the tower and had entered a heavily reinforced room. "Why would a room such as this be so heavily reinforced?" Bearpaw asked to himself.

Suddenly a voice came from the end of the room. "Computing answer…… This room is to stop my weapons from damaging the other facilities inside the castle."

Bearpaw braced himself as he saw a giant machine creature come from the shadows at the side of the room. It stood at 8 feet tall and was very bulky. It resembled the shape of a human but had metal plating all over it, and where its face should be, there was simply two eyes with red scanners in them and a speaker where his mouth should be.

"What are you?" Bearpaw asked as he prepared for a fight.

"Simple answer human, I am an robot built by the famous Dr. Vegapunk in the early years of his childhood, who was sold to the leader of this land for the purpose of protection. My program tells me to refer to myself as RY-1" The robot responded. "From video surveillance footage, you appear to be an enemy, you will be engaged with lethal force. It is also clear to me that your attack demonstrated in the courtyard will no longer work, as there is no earth in this building."

"Someone should have really programmed you with more knowledge," Bearpaw said with a smug look on his face. "We Natives do not only believe in one spirit."

The robot turned its head as if almost confused.

"Spirit of Fire: Breath!" Bearpaw yelled before taking in a large breath, when he exhaled, a large cone of fire erupted from his mouth and onto the RY-1. RY-1 did not move, and a few seconds later, when the attack subsided, the robot was shown to be completely unharmed.

"Unsuccessful attempt human, my casing is designed to take temperatures up to 2000 degrees, which your fire can not create." RY-1 responded in his monologue voice.

"Well let's see how it does against impact!" Bearpaw yelled as he jumped forward and punched RY in the chest, a loud thud was heard, but RY showed no damage and Bearpaw could feel that the impact hurt his hand.

When Bearpaw jumped back, he saw the shoulder plates of RY slide out of the way a marine rifle came out of each shoulder, and Bearpaw tried to jump to the side. Suddenly the rifles went off and one of the bullets hit Bearpaw just to the left of his stomach. He used one hand and grasped the injury and continued to run to the side.

Suddenly one of the arm plates of RY slid out of place and a small missile appeared and shot towards Bearpaw, who quickly jumped over it just as the explosion went off behind him. Bearpaw landed on the arm of RY that had just shot the missile and positioned himself over where the missile was launched from. "Spirit of Water: Jet Stream!" Suddenly water erupted from Bearpaw's hand and went into the air.

Bearpaw jumped away as sparks went off inside the arm. RY scanned his arm and said, "Assessing damage…… disconnecting unusable part." Suddenly the sound of air compressors going off was heard and RY's arm fell off of his shoulder. "Recalculating strategy to best fight opponent based on known data… recalculation complete, commencing attack."

Without warning, RY jumped forward and punched Bearpaw in the stomach, sending him flying into a wall. Bearpaw got up coughing and looked down at RY. He was preparing to launch another missile from his other arm. Bearpaw stuck out his palm and said, "I hope this works, Spirit of Air: Tornado Palm!"

A large gust of wind busted forth from Bearpaw's palm and headed towards RY-1. The wind hit him and sent him flying against the wall behind him. Bearpaw continued to yell and the wind picked up speed, and the wall behind RY-1 started to crack. Suddenly the wall broke and RY-1 was sent flying into the courtyard, crashing and setting off all the explosives stored within him, creating a large explosion, destroying him instantly.

"Damn I hate technology." Bearpaw joked as he walked towards the switch.

Yura had also just reached the top of her tower. She looked around the room she was in, it was a large room with many bows and spears mounted on the wall. "Come out, I know you are in here, I can hear your thoughts." Yura said as she walked towards the center of the room.

"Damn, you are one perceptive person." Came a voice as a man dropped from the ceiling and landed just in front of Yura. He was a man that stood about 6 feet tall with long green spiky hair that went down to his waist. On his back he had a long bow and some arrows, as well as various hunting knives.

"Let me guess, you are the hunter who catches all the food that is eaten here?" Cora guessed as she studied the man.

"You are correct, I am Toravisu, and who may you be my long lady?" The man asked.

"I am Yura, and you are going to have to get out of my way Toravisu." Yura declared as she got into fighting position.

"I'm afraid I can't do that, you see, I am suppose to guard this switch, and I can't just let you to it." Toravisu responded.

"Very well, than you have forced me to destroy you." Yura said before she stretched out her hand, "Mind Pulse!" Suddenly a wave of purple slammed into Toravisu and pushed him towards a wall, he managed to plant his feet on the ground and stop himself.

"Quite the interesting ability you have there." Toravisu said as he pulled out his bow and loaded an arrow. "But let's see how it does against my weapons." He pulled back the bow and shot the arrow towards Yura who stretched her hand out again and the arrow slowly came to a stop just before her face.

"Very interesting, it would appear that you have some king of telekinetic ability. But how does it fair against multiple targets." Toravisu said as he pulled out and shot multiple arrows at Yura. Yura knew she could not stop them all and jumped to the side, but one of the arrows clipped her arm and caused her to crash into the floor. Suddenly Toravisu pulled out one of the medium length hunting knives and charged towards Yura.

Yura managed to see him coming and jumped back just as the sword connected with the ground. Toravisu raised his sword and said, "You are way to easy to analyze, I spend all my time hunting and learning to take down wild beasts, your devil's fruit is no problem to me, and I think I found your weakness. It appears that you have to concentrate pretty hard to use that power of yours effectively, so if I fight you in close quarters, there is no way you can stop me." He said as he began to laugh.

Toravisu than jumped forward and swung his sword overhead at Yura. Just before the sword connected, Yura reached down to her belt and pulled out a butcher's knife and a slicing knife and brought them up to block the sword. She looked up at Toravisu, "Do not assume that my devil's fruit is my only strategy." She said with a smirk on her face.

Toravisu jumped back and readied his blade again. Yura charged forward and their blades collided, but Toravisu spoke up. "Just because you can use something else, doesn't mean you will win." Suddenly he pushed Cora's knives out of her hands, and slashed her across the leg and kicked her into the wall.

Yura grabbed all the knives from her belt and began throwing them at Toravisu, who easily blocked them all and after they had all stopped, he looked forward to see Yura in a deep trance. "What are you doing now!" he yelled.

"This!" Yura yelled as suddenly the wooden floor folded up and made a very tight box around Toravisu so that he could not move his arms. Than Yura proceeded to reach out her hands and cause all of the knives she had thrown to rise into the air. "Magician's Box!" Yura yelled as all the knives stabbed into the wooden box and a loud scream could be heard from inside.

Yura than started breathing heavily and dropped her hands, causing all the knives and box to drop to the ground, revealing Toravisu, still standing, he slowly began approaching Yura. When he was less than 2 feet away, he collapsed on the ground. Yura looked off in the distance and saw the lever.

Slightly after everyone else, Kurisu reached the top of his tower. Upon entering the large room, he yelled out, "Hey, mister really powerful training guy, show yourself so I can kill you!" Out of nowhere a spear appeared and was about to hit Kurisu in the face but he ducked at the last second and it slammed into the door behind him.

Kurisu stepped forward and saw a man standing in front of him. The man was over 7 feet tall and had several katanas on different places on his body. He had short brown hair that was spiked. The man spoke up, "Greetings to you pathetic warrior, I am Chakku, and you are one very unlucky person."

"And why would that be?" Kurisu asked, quite intrigued.

"It is because you are looking at the one who trained the elite guard who guard the king. I am one of the most powerful if not the most powerful person in here!" Chakku laughed as he finished talking.

"Well, that just gets me more credit when I take you down." Kurisu said as he pulled out one of the large swords on his back. "Let's get right into this."

Kurisu dashed forward as Chakku pulled out two swords, the swords clashed multiple times and the two seemed evenly matched. Kurisu swung his sword at Chakku from the side, but Chakku used both his swords and blocked it, than proceeded to kick Kurisu in the stomach, sending him backwards. Before Kurisu had a chance to recover, Chakku appeared and kicked him into the air. He than jumped after him and brought his swords in an overhead swing.

Kurisu managed to lift his sword to block the swords in mid-air, but the force still sent him flying towards the floor. The dust cleared and Kurisu stood back up, breathing heavily and he had not even managed to hit the opponent.

"Well guess, I really can't take it easy on you." Kurisu said as he raised his sword to the side. "Large Sword Style: Crimson Wave!" Kurisu slashed his sword and a red wave shot forth towards Chakku, who brought both his swords up to defend but the wave surrounded him and sent him flying at the wall.

The two both dashed forward again exchanging many sword blows. The two jumped away from each other for a brief second. Both men were breathing heavily and had multiple cuts upon their bodies. Chakku jumped forward and swung his swords at Kurisu who blocked, but failed to see the kick aimed at his head, which sent him flying to the side, when he recovered, Chakku quickly kicked Kurisu's sword out of his hand.

Chakku approached Kurisu with one sword pointing at Kurisu's neck, "What will you do now, have I not shown you that I am clearly superior?"

"Well I guess I better use it. I would have really liked to have avoided using this." Kurisu said as he regained his posture.

"You think a single technique can beat me? Who do you think you are you insolent little punk?" Chakku said as he looked towards Kurisu.

Kurisu reached to his belt and pulled out one of his katanas. He lifted it into the air and Chakku could see a red glare coming off the sword. Just than Kurisu spoke extremely calmly, "Blood River."

Before Chakku realized what was going on, Kurisu was behind him. Just as he turned around to swing at Kurisu, 10 cuts burst forth on his body. Before falling to the floor he asked, "What did you just do, no one can change speed that quickly with just a change of swords."

"This sword is special, it is one of the Ō Wazamono, The 21 Great Grade Swords and is remarked as the fastest one, but that also makes it one of the most brittle, so I prefer not to use it." Kurisu responded as he placed the blade back in the sheath.

Kurisu walked over to the lever after making sure Chakku was out, and pulled out the Den-Den Mushi that was on his wrist. "Is everyone ready?"

Three voices came from the other side, "Yes!"

"Alright, than pull the levers in three, two, one!" Kurisu yelled as all four people pulled the levers.

* * *

**Thank you for reading and I really hope you enjoyed the chapter, I am sorry for making you wait so long but school is getting really close to exams and i have been doing alot of other stuff. Please don't forget to review, I really want to hear from you guys and hope I can make the reading experiece beter for all of you.**

**I would also like to remind or tell people that I have a poll on my account page about what kind of enemies the crew should face, whether it be old Straw Hat enemies or new enemies, or both. So if you have the time please answer that.**

* * *


	10. The Liberation Part 2

**Hey guys, guess who's back, its your favourite writer (I hope), me! Sorry this took incredibly long and i bet some of you were giving up on me, but now you can be happy.**

**Once again the Disclaimer that I do not own any of the One Piece characters mentioned in here.**

**Alright well stop yelling at your screen that I took too long and start reading, here it is**

**A New Pirate Crew Emerges - Chapter 10: The Liberation Part 2**

* * *

Tairaa stood at the end of his hall. The soldiers who had attempted to fight him all lay on the ground, groaning in pain. The large door in front of him slowly began to open. "I knew they could do it." Tairaa said while walking into the room, Roje and Jeimuzu following closely behind.

Tairaa walked in a looked around. The room was a large circle, but in the middle there was a raised circle platform with stairs leading up to it from the four different gates. That platform was easily defendable for archers, but appeared as if it was empty. Tairaa began to run up the stairs, hoping to meet up with everyone else.

When Tairaa reached the top he looked around, nothing was there besides an empty throne. "Damn they must have evacuated when we started attacking." Tairaa said as he almost turned around. Suddenly separate footsteps could be heard coming up the other stairs. Tairaa got into battle position just in case.

From the south and west staircase came Razar and Akira. Tairaa looked up at the ceiling half expecting Jiiku to fall through the roof, Razar and Akira did the same.

"What are you guys looking at?" Came a voice from the side, it was Jiiku.

"Wow, you actually came up the stairs." Tairaa commented.

"Of course, how else would I get in here?" Jiiku responded.

"Well I just thought… oh never mind." Tairaa said.

"Now that everyone is here, we may begin." Came a voice from nowhere, the crew looked around and saw no one.

Suddenly holes opened up in the floor and Tairaa, Razar and Akira fell through, leaving only Jiiku standing on the platform.

Jiiku quickly looked around and saw a shadow covered man now standing in the middle of the platform. "What did you do to them, why leave only me?" Jiiku yelled at the man.

"Don't worry, your friends have simply fallen down to the chambers of my elite guards, and as for why you are left, its very simple. REVENGE!" The man said, slowly stepping into the light.

"No way! It can't be!" Jiiku said as the man revealed his face.

Akira slide down a tunnel not knowing where it was taking him. Suddenly a light started to appear and Akira realized he was approaching the end and braced himself for impact.

Akira fell out of the tube and crashed into the floor, luckily he wasn't moving very fast and it didn't cause a great amount of pain. Akira stood up and brushed himself off before looking at his surroundings. He was in a large room that appeared to be made of stone. There was very little light which made it hard for Akira to pick out the details.

Suddenly the sound of footsteps could be heard for several seconds before they disappeared. Suddenly Akira was punched in the side of his stomach and sent flying across the room. Akira looked back and saw the figure of a man standing in the distance. The man quickly charged forward at Akira, who managed to jump out of the way just in time.

Akira managed to get a better look at the man, he was average height, around 6 feet, and was very skinny. He had a short sword on his waist in a sheath. Akira could tell he was facing a speedy opponent.

"Don't waste any time do you?" Akira asked while slowly standing up.

"If there is an opponent in front of me I must destroy him, it is that simple." The man responded.

"So I guess you're not one for introductions than?" Akira asked as he got into fighting position.

The question was answered when the man jumped forward and unsheathing his sword, swinging in an overhead motion towards Akira. Akira quickly jumped to the side and slammed his fist into the ground.

"Let's hope this works." Akira said as the ground began to shake. Suddenly the stone floor began to crack and a large boulder came flying out and slowly began shaping into a sword. "Good thing this place is underground." Akira remarked as he grasped the sword.

The man charged forward and his sword collided with Akira's. He examined Akira's face and than his eyes opened and he jumped back.

"I knew I recognized that power. The power of the Tsu Tsu Fruit. Eaten by Akira "Devil Eye" Kido, one of the only survivors of the massacre 3 years ago." The man began laughing. "Man that was a fun job, we really did a number on that village! You were lucky you weren't there when we landed."

Akira eyes widened at this statement, memories flashed before his eyes, remembering the fire and the blood. Akira quickly composed himself and asked, "You are part of the Cross Scar Pirates?" Clenching his fist while talking.

"Was, but the stupid lot abandoned me on this island during our voyage, apparently I wasn't strong enough for them." The man responded, still smiling.

"You were the ones that killed my mother and took Megumi?" Akira asked once again, now beginning to shake.

"What you mean that girl we took as our slave, HA, we had some fun with her. She kept crying when we took her and saying the name 'Akira', I guess that would be you kid?" The man said, now becoming more serious.

"YOU SON OF A….." Akira managed to yell before he charged forward in full anger, quickly kicking the man in the knee before he had time to dodge, greatly damaging his leg to the point it almost broke.

The man screamed in pain but was able to throw a punch at Akira's face, it was slow and Akira had plenty of time to move but instead took the punch.

Akira's glasses shattered, revealing his one blue eye and one red eye. Akira used this moment to grab the man and throw him at the wall.

Before the man could regain his composure, stones came bursting from the wall and held him against it. The man looked across the room with a terrified look on his face, seeing Akira slowly walking towards him.

Akira walked right up to the man and pulled out his pistol and pointed it straight at the man's head. "You are going to tell me everything." Akira said as he loaded the pistol.

* * *

At the mean time Razar had landed at the bottom of his tunnel. He scanned the room and it was much like Akira's, a large stone room. Razar than began to hear a loud thudding noise and the ground began to vibrate. Suddenly a large light turned on and the room became easily visible.

In the middle of the room stood a gigantic man, he was at least 15 feet tall and had a large body as well. He had dark eyes and spiky black hair. On his back he held a large axe.

The man looked at Razar, "My name is Ryosuke, and you are someone that I must kill in name of our great King."

"Man why do I always have to face the giants? Well my name is Razar and don't think I'm gonna go down so easily." Razar responded.

Ryosuke charged at Razar and pulled out his axe, Razar pulled out two of his swords as well. The weapons collided and than the two men jumped back.

The two continued to jump forward and clash, weapons colliding high and low. After a while Ryosuke could see that Razar was beginning to get tired. "Looks like your not that experienced as a swordsman, oh well, I was starting to have some fun." Ryosuke said as he readied to dash again.

"Do you really think swords are my only weapons?" Razar said as he put his swords away, and began reaching for his shell on his back. Once he pulled it off his back he held it in one hand. Suddenly he threw the shell like a disc, yelling "Shell Toss!"

The shell came flying towards Ryosuke at a high speed. "Ha! That's it? It's just a pathetic little shell, easy to block." Ryosuke brought his axe up to block the shell, but was surprised that when it made contact, sparks flew and he was actually starting to get pushed back. He gave one final push and the shell flew back towards Razar who caught it.

"What was that just now? No shell should make sparks when colliding with metal… unless…" Ryosuke questioned.

"That's right; my shell is made of metal. I decided that I would never be good enough with swords to solely rely on them, so I did what shipwrights do best, I made something to help me, and lucky you, you get to see it in action." Razar responded as he put both hands on his shell and pointed the back towards Ryosuke

"Shell Missiles!" Razar yelled as a loud clunking noise was heard before five of the spikes on Razar's shell shot out and flew towards Ryosuke, smoke coming from the bottom of each spike. They collided with the area near him and a huge explosion covered the room, and than all that could be seen was smoke.

"Well that's one way to deal with a giant." Razar said smiling as he did.

* * *

While Razar and Akira were fighting, Tairaa had landed at the bottom of his tube and had met the elite guard, he was a fairly tall man, standing at 6 feet 5 inches. He had a muscular build, but had no weapons on his body, that made Tairaa very suspicious.

"Let me guess, with my luck you are the strongest among the elite guards?" Tairaa asked as Roje and Jeimuzu were recovering from the fall.

"You are correct, I am Shinnosuke, the strongest of the elite guard and you are going to soon find out why. I will let you have one free attack at me to start this fight." The man replied, standing completely still in the middle of the room.

_Better be careful_ Tairaa thought as he eyed his opponent. _This guy is probably an expert in countering, so I should go with the long range approach. I'm really going to have to thank Jiiku for this later._ Tairaa quickly activated his fruit and fused with Roje and Jeimuzu, creating his tiger legs.

"Tiger Rankyaku!" Tairaa yelled as he kicked his leg extremely quickly, suddenly a large blue blade of air shot towards Shinnosuke.

"Interesting" Shinnosuke said as the blade approached him, yet he refused to move.

As soon as the blade made contact with Shinnosuke a large amount of water splashed and the blade continued through him until it made contact with the wall.

_I see a logia type, but I can't let him know I'm onto him, maybe I can try out my new ability._ Tairaa thought, than he came up with a plan, "How did you dodge that, you must be incredibly fast."

_Fool, he doesn't even realize what a logia type is, guess I'll let him tire himself out._ Shinnosuke thought as he remained in the same spot. "Maybe you'll have better luck with another shot." He said as he began to laugh.

_Good, he thinks I'm stupid, now is the time to use it._ Tairaa put his hand in a shape as if it was holding something; suddenly a large blue glowing ball appeared in his hand.

He began to throw the object towards Shinnosuke, yelling "Solid Shot!" The ball went flying towards him at high speed.

_Idiot, I will just turn into my element and dodge it._ Shinnosuke concentrated and was just waiting for the shot to hit him, but when it did something surprising happened. The ball disappeared into his skin and Shinnosuke felt extremely weird.

Suddenly Tairaa burst forward and managed to punch Shinnosuke in the stomach and send him flying backwards into the wall, there was a large crash and seconds later Shinnosuke was lying on the floor with a look of panic on his face.

"How… How did you hit me? It isn't possible." Shinnosuke said in a scared voice.

* * *

Jiiku stood in shock as the man walked slowly into the light reveling his face. Jiiku's shocked looked gradually faded. "Wait, never mind. I thought I knew you but I don't think so." Jiiku said looking at the man's face.

The man had several scars going across his face and had green spiky hair that went quite high in the air. His face filled with anger as Jiiku talked.

"You really don't remember, huh?" The man began to say, "Maybe this will jog your memory." And suddenly the man burst forward charging at Jiiku. He threw a punch at Jiiku's face but Jiiku quickly ducked and upper-cut the man in the chin sending him flying back.

"Well that wasn't very impressive at all, why am I suppose to remember you?" Jiiku said as he began to crack his knuckles.

"Maybe this will help." Said the man as he threw a piece of paper towards Jiiku, who quickly caught it and began to open it. It was a wanted poster that seemed fairly old. It had a picture of the man standing in front of Jiiku, the title read, _Hitoshi of the Red Whip Bounty: 5 Million Beri. _

"Wait your…" Jiiku began to say.

"Yes, have you finally remembered you simpleton." The man responded.

"Wait nope, thought I had it, so care to just tell me?" Jiiku said after much thought.

"DAMN YOU!" The man yelled, "I am Hitoshi of the Red Whip, leader of a small branch of pirates and the man who you captured at age eight."

"Oh, you're my first capture. Guess that explains why I don't remember you, if I could beat you at age eight, what makes you think you have a chance now." Jiiku said as he crumpled up the paper and threw it away.

"You'll see quite a few things are different about me now." Hitoshi slowly began to take a whip out from his waist.

As soon as Jiiku saw the whip he quickly pulled a mace out from one of his inside jacket pockets and threw it yelling "Improv Fighting Style: Mjollnir! (For those of you who don't know that is the name of Thor, the Norse God of Thunder's Hammer) He quickly tossed the mace at Hitoshi.

Hitoshi quickly dodged to the side but before he had time to catch his balance, Jiiku was already right at his face.

"Improv Fighting Style: That Was A Distraction!" Jiiku yelled out as he did a spinning back kick and hit Hitoshi square in the stomach, sending him flying backwards.

"I'll ask again." Jiiku said in a slightly irritated tone, "How do you plan on beating me?"

"You think you are unbeatable, than just look at your shoulder." Hitoshi said as he started to laugh.

Jiiku looked at his shoulder and saw a nothing, but suddenly a huge gash burst forth and blood came flying out. Jiiku looked down at Hitoshi and saw he was now holding his whip which was mostly white, but the tip was now blood red.

"They didn't call me Hitoshi of the Red Whip for nothing. By the end of all my fights, my whip is soaked in my enemy's blood." Hitoshi said while he stood up and got ready to continue the fight.

* * *

Akira still stood in front of the man who was locked to the wall. Akira was still incredibly angry, but slowly regained his composer. Suddenly he released the man from the rocks holding him to the wall.

The man landed and began to speak, "Why, if you hate me so much, finish it! I dropped my guard and you took advantage of it, you may claim your victory."

"No, I am not like you, we will settle this my way. With a fight!" Akira yelled as he put his gun back in its holster and got into fighting position.

"Good, that's what I wanted too. But don't think that just because my leg is damaged that you will have any kind of advantage." The man yelled back. "You are one of the strongest opponents I have faced, you shall know the name of the man you will be defeated by. I am Tetsuo, now let's end this."

Akira quickly reached down and pulled a chunk of rock from the ground and shot it towards Tetsuo at a high speed.

Tetsuo disappeared in a flash, leaving only a blurry image behind. Suddenly Akira heard footsteps to his left, so he turned facing that direction.

Akira than felt immense pain as he was kicked in the side of the head from another direction.

"You really thought it would be that easy to find out where I will attack from by my footsteps. Disguising my position is my specialty." Came Tetsuo's voice from all around Akira, making it even more confusing.

Akira continued to be attacked by Tetsuo, not able to figure out where he was. Eventually Tetsuo hit Akira so hard that it sent Akira flying back and slamming into a wall. Akira coughed up blood and fell to the floor motionless.

_Damn, how do I beat a guy that I can't see _Akira thought as he attempted to stand up, but his muscles gave out on him and he fell to the ground. _I have taken way to much damage, I am not sure I can continue this. _

Akira began to close his eyes but than a picture of a young girl playing flashed before his eyes, as well as individual pictures of his crewmates.

_That's right, I have people who need me, there is no way I am losing to a scum-bag like this. _Akira slowly began to stand up, to the amazement of Tetsuo, who watched from a distance. _I have to not rely on my eyes, I wont be able to hear him if I am focusing on seeing him. _Akira got up and than closed his eyes.

"You must really be going crazy. How do you expect to fight me with your eyes closed?" Tetsuo yelled as he once again disappeared in a flash.

Akira remained completely still, listening intently to the sounds around him. He began to hear the wind shifting to his right, and raised his right hand just in time to catch Tetsuo's punch. He clenched his hand around Tetsuo's fist and yelled out, "LIKE THIS!" As Akira punched Tetsuo in the stomach, sending him flying high up into the air.

Akira jumped right after Tetsuo and now opened his eyes. He slammed his hands into the ceiling and yelled out. "Tsu Tsu Double Pillar!" Rapidly two pillar of earth burst forth from the ceiling and slammed into Tetsuo who was still in mid-air. The pillars pushed him towards the floor. When his body hit the floor, his back arched and he coughed out a great amount of blood.

The pillars began to slowly fade, and Tetsuo slowly rose to his feet. "Is this the best you got? I'm still standing!" He yelled up at Akira.

Akira landed far in front of Tetsuo, who began to charge forward much slower now. "I guess I'll have to end this than." Akira said as he began to concentrate. "Tsu Tsu Uppercut." He yelled as made an upper cutting motion with his arm, suddenly a fist of stone burst forth from the ground right under Tetsuo and hit him in the chin, causing more blood to fly out of Tetsuo.

Tetsuo landed hard on the ground and showed no signs of getting back up. Akira slowly walked over to him and lifted him up by his collar. "Now let's try this again, you are going to tell me everything!" Akira demanded.

* * *

Razar meanwhile was standing in the room, putting his shell back on and trying to figure out what to do when suddenly a voice came from the middle of the room.

"That was quite good, but it will take a lot more than some cheap tricks to stop me."

Razar turned and saw Ryosuke's figure in the middle of the flames left from the explosion. He slowly began to walked forward until he was out of the flames. Some of his clothes were burn and torn, and he had several cuts over his body, but looked mostly fine.

Ryosuke quickly charged forward with his axe drawn. Razar barely had time to get his shell off again and bring it up to block the attack. Sparks flew as the two weapons collided. Unexpectedly Ryosuke kicked his leg and hit Razar right in the chest, sending him flying backwards and only stopping when he hit the wall.

"That's some strong kick you got there." Razar said, trying to not show the pain he was in.

"You wont be making remarks for much longer, so enjoy it while it lasts." Ryosuke said as he once again dashed forward, swinging his axe overhead towards Razar, who brought up his two swords to attempt to block the slash.

The weapons collided but Razar's weapons shattered upon impact and Ryosuke's axe sliced a huge gash into Razar's torso.

_That better not leave a scar or else Cora will never forgive me. _Razar thought as he fell towards the ground, dropping his shell when his back hit the floor.

Ryosuke jumped in the air and was slowly falling towards Razar with his axe raised up so he could bring it down on his head.

Razar quickly reached over to grab his shell despite the great amount of pain he was in. He pulled at the shell and it spilt in half cleanly. Razar put each half of his shell on one of his fists, than right before Ryosuke made contact with him, a blade came out of the end of each half of the shell. Razar held them up and blocked the incoming attack while still laying on the floor.

Ryosuke then began to feel like his axe was sliding along the two swords, when suddenly Razar lifted both his feet and kicked Ryosuke high enough off him that he could roll out of the way.

"What are those?" Ryosuke asked, looking at his axe and remembering the sliding feeling.

"These are what I like to call The Pulsing Shell Blades. Each blade vibrates several times a second because of a special motor in each half of my shell, which allows them to off balance an opponent's weapon as well as the fact they are made of a much more dense metal than my regular swords. "Razar responded as he stood to his feet, readying his swords once again.

"So you got new swords, doesn't mean you'll be any good with them." Ryosuke said as he raised his axe.

Razar charged forward and slashed one of his swords in a diagonal line, clashing against Ryosuke's axe, sending sparks flying and pushing Ryosuke back.

Ryosuke ran forward and swung his axe at Razar, who lifted up his right sword to black the attack. While he was holding the block, he swung his other sword at Ryosuke's leg, who quickly jumped back but was not fast enough as the blade grazed his leg and a small amount of blood came out.

"You were saying?' Razar said as he flung his sword to the side to get the blood off.

The two clashed many more times, sparks flying and more cuts opening on each of the fighters' bodies. Eventually they both stopped to catch their breath.

"Look at you, you're going to collapse any second now." Ryosuke said while pointing at Razar, who was now becoming drenched in blood.

"You're not doing much better." Razar responded noting that Ryosuke was drenched in blood as well.

"Well I guess this shall be decided with one attack than." Ryosuke said as he readied his axe for one last strike.

"I guess so." Razar acknowledged as he brought both his swords up.

The two "men" charged at each other. Ryosuke swung his axe in an upwards motion, while Razar swung both swords in a downwards x shaped swing. The weapons collided in the middle, sparks flew and blood leaked out as both men pushed with all their might.

Suddenly Ryosuke's axe shattered and a large x shaped cut burst forth on his chest, spraying blood in many directions and causing him to pass out.

Razar reattached his shell and put it back on his back. "Now to try and find a way out of here without bleeding to death." Razar joked as he started searching around the room.

* * *

Shinnosuke still laid on the ground, only now beginning to slowly rise to his feet. "There is no way, I know I turned into my element, how did you hit me?" he asked facing Tairaa who had now de-fused.

"Simple, it's my Devil's Fruit. It is called the Fuse Fuse Fruit but technically can do more than just fuse things. When fusing two or more creatures together, it allows me to manipulate the DNA to pick what characteristics of each will come out. So if I trained I can manipulate the DNA of a regular person without fusing them. So I created a technique that allows me to temporarily erase the gene in a Logia Fruit user that allows them to turn into their element." Tairaa responded.

"I guess I underestimated you, but that attack will not hit me again." Shinnosuke said, now feeling able to turn back into his element. "Now prepare yourself for the fight against the user of the Water Water Fruit, Shinnosuke."

"I was ready this whole time." Tairaa said getting back into battle position.

"Good, Water Water Mallet!" Shinnosuke yelled as his right arm turned into a jet of water but at the end was a ball of water.

_Damn its fast! _Tairaa thought as the jet of water charged towards him. He had time to push Roje and Jeimuzu out of the way before it slammed into his chest, sending him flying back before he hit the wall and quickly rolled as the jet of water slammed into the spot where he used to be.

"For water that seems to be surprisingly strong, but I guess anything would when travelling at that speed. But water is still water and it can be displaced." Tairaa yelled as he once again fused with Roje and Jeimuzu to get his tiger legs.

Shinnosuke sent out his arm once again towards Tairaa, who quickly did another Tiger Rankyaku splitting the water into two separate streams. But the streams quickly converged again and surrounded Tairaa, trapping him in a ball of water. Tairaa gasped for breath, feeling as if he was going to drown, he tried to push forward. Surprisingly he fell out of the ball of water.

"That's right," Tairaa said. "You can't make water more dense than it already is so I can swim out if you trap me. You clearly have to think your attacks through more." Tairaa slightly began to laugh.

"Oh, but you'll find that the rest of my attacks make up for that one. Water Water Double Whip!" Shinnosuke yelled as both his arms turned into thin jets of water and shot towards Tairaa. Tairaa was unable to dodge both the jets travelling at such high speeds, resulting in several cuts across his body, as well as him getting launched into the air and slamming hard onto the floor.

"Damn, gonna have to use them. Fusion: Eyes!" Tairaa yelled as suddenly his eyes changed from his regular eyes to more cat like eyes. Suddenly Tairaa was able to dodge all the attacks coming at him.

"How are you doing that!" Shinnosuke yelled as he continued to attempt to hit Tairaa.

"You should know that cats have better eyes than us. Even if its only slightly it increases my perception just enough to see your attacks coming." Tairaa responded as he managed to dodge another set of attacks by Shinnosuke.

Tairaa managed to do a side flip over one of the whips and his eyes suddenly widened. _There! _Tairaa thought as he charged straight at Shinnosuke through an opening he had spotted in Shinnosuke's whips.

Tairaa charged forward and before Shinnosuke had time to react, Tairaa's fist was glowing blue and he punched Shinnosuke with it causing him to become solid before Tairaa did a kick towards Shinnosuke's stomach.

Once Shinnosuke got up once again, he was already struggling to catch his breath. "This is the thing with all you Logia Types, you rely so much on your precious element, that if you ever get hit your body can't take it. Well that just makes it easier for me." Tairaa said as he backed away from Shinnosuke.

Shinnosuke's face filled with anger. His legs suddenly became a steady stream of water lifting him in the air. His legs suddenly sent out a huge burst of water, sending Shinnosuke flying towards Tairaa, who managed to roll out of the way just in time, but was unprepared when he turned around to see Shinnosuke had already burst off the wall and was charging towards him.

Tairaa was unable to move as Shinnosuke punched Tairaa causing blood to come out of his previous wounds as well as sending him flying and crashing into the wall behind him.

Tairaa slowly began to stand up, his right leg greatly damaged from the impact. Suddenly a water whip was behind Tairaa and slammed into his back sending him flying towards Shinnosuke, who caught Tairaa and held him by his collar into the air.

"So who was this going to be easy for again?" Shinnosuke asked in a sarcastic voice, beginning to laugh.

"Clearly you haven't learned you lesson not to get close to me!" Tairaa yelled as his fist glowed blue and he grabbed onto Shinnosuke's arm, once again turning him solid. Shinnosuke quickly dropped Tairaa out of shock and he saw Tairaa preparing an attack.

"Tiger Rankyaku Barrage!" Tairaa yelled as he kicked both his legs in rapid succession shooting out multiple Rankyaku blades that collided one after another with Shinnosuke, pushing him back and leaving a large but shallow cut with each hit. After several hits Tairaa slowed down and eventually stopped as well as separated from Roje and Jeimuzu.

"You are lucky that my leg is damaged or that many strikes could have killed you." Tairaa said as he looked at Shinnosuke who was heavily bleeding and collapsed on the floor.

"How could a lone pirate defeat me so badly?" Shinnosuke said as he saw Tairaa walking away.

"Because there's no way I'm going to die before I find One Piece and while people are counting on me." Tairaa said as Shinnosuke slipped into unconsciousness.

Tairaa limped away trying to find an exit with Roje and Jeimuzu right behind him, also showing signs of damage. "Better find Jiiku before he manages to blow this place up." Tairaa said as he started to open a nearby door.

* * *

Jiiku at the meantime was still shocked that Hitoshi had managed to not just hit him, but make him bleed.

"Are you so surprised to be hit?" Hitoshi asked as he readied his whip for another strike.

"Not really, I just really thought if you were going to hit me you might have well have gone for my throat, than you would have won. But blood just makes this more fun!" Jiiku yelled as he pulled out the staff he had taken from the barracks earlier.

Hitoshi shot his whip out and it quickly wrapped around the staff Jiiku was holding and pulled it away from him, but Jiiku noticed something that he knew would help him in this battle and began smiling.

"What are you smiling about!?" Hitoshi yelled as he shot the whip out once again towards Jiiku, who jumped to the side and grabbed the whip as it flew past.

"So that's why you could cut me." Jiiku said as he looked at the tip of the whip and saw that it had several small blades on it. "I noticed when I looked at the staff you took away from me, it had several scratches along it and I knew that wasn't from you pulling it."

"Wait, did you just have a smart moment, have you changed that much in these years?" Hitoshi asked as he tried to pull the whip back.

"Ummmm… No, ignore what I just said." Jiiku said after realizing (but not really understanding) what he had just said.

"Well just because you noticed it doesn't mean you can beat it!" Hitoshi said as he swiftly yanked at the whip, causing Jiiku to let go of it for fear of being cut.

Hitoshi than quickly shot out the whip towards Jiiku, who suddenly pulled out a sword and dodged to the side.

"Improv Fighting Style: Quick Cut!" Jiiku yelled as he disappeared and suddenly appeared again in front of Hitoshi.

Hitoshi tried to pull back his whip but it didn't work, he looked up and saw it start to fall apart, having been cut multiple times by a sword. "You're as fast as always I see." Hitoshi remarked.

"Well they don't call me a genius for nothing." Jiiku responded with a smirk on his face.

"I guess we have to settle this, the old fashioned way than." Hitoshi said as he got in a fighting position.

"Alright, rock, paper, scis…" Jiiku started before he was quickly interrupted.

"NO YOU IDIOT! With a fist fight, no weapons needed." Hitoshi yelled in anger as he threw a punch at Jiiku who had no time to dodge and got hit in the chest.

Jiiku recovered and charged towards Hitoshi. Jiiku tried a sweeping leg kick but Hitoshi jumped over it with ease and did a spinning kick and hit Jiiku in the side of the head, once again sending him flying.

Hitoshi than proceeded to punch at Jiiku's stomach, but Jiiku managed to parry his fist and slip past his arm and uppercut Hitoshi in the stomach, sending him flying high. Jiiku quickly jumped after him and punched him towards the ground, but Hitoshi managed to steady himself in mid-air and land on his feet with little damage.

"You've been training if I can remember you power correctly, which I probably can't" Jiiku said as he jumped back from where Hitoshi had landed.

Hitoshi began to grin, "Yes, when you fought me my bounty was only 5 million, but after escaping from the marines I trained my body greatly, and my bounty should be closer to 50 million. My elite guards as well should have bounties in the tens of millions. There is no way your pathetic crew could have defeated them. Face it, you will lose!" Hitoshi yelled as he once again charged and threw a punch at Jiiku.

"Improv Fighting Style: Stealing Tairaa's Move!" Jiiku yelled as he pushed Hitoshi's arm off to the side, grabbed his wrist, and used his other arm to grab Hitoshi's elbow and throw him in the air while spinning him forward. He than turn around and as Hitoshi was still spinning in mid-air he punched him full force in the stomach, sending him flying and crashing down the set of stairs, dust surrounding the landing area.

Jiiku turned around and began to walk away, "Better go find the others."

"Don't count me out so fast!" Came Hitoshi's voice, who was now right behind Jiiku and kneed him in the back, sending him tumbling to the lower levels.

Jiiku looked up at Hitoshi after recovering from the fall and saw he was coughing up blood. But Jiiku knew he wasn't in a much better condition. Jiiku jumped and ran back up the stairs to confront Hitoshi.

Both of them ran forward and their fists collided sending a small shockwave pushing both fighters back.

Hitoshi attempted to throw a punch at Jiiku's face, but Jiiku jumped in the air yelling, "Improv Fighting Style: Ultimate Counter!" Jiiku quickly kicked one of his legs down and pinned Hitoshi's fist to the floor. Jiiku than lifted his other leg high in the air, "Guess you didn't get much better after all." Jiiku said as he dropped his leg on the back of Hitoshi's head which slammed his face into the floor knocking him unconscious.

Just as Hitoshi passed out, the other members of the Wild Cat Crew arrived on top of the platform.

"Man what took you guys so long? I almost thought you guys had lost." Jiiku said as he began to laugh along with everyone else.

* * *

**Hope you liked the chapter, it is the longest chapter I have written so far, and by far the hardest to write.**

**Please as I always ask you to... please review, it helps me know if I am doing my job (if you want to call it that) properly. Aside from the fact that I don't update enough, tell me if my fights could use work or my stroy telling could be better I am open to critizisms but please no flames.**


	11. That's Jiiku For You

**Hey guys! Looks who's not dead. Well not sure what else to say, I took a long time as usual, but I'm sure you guys have come to expect that by now :D. But I think I may be a bit better during this season, because at school I only have 3 courses instead of 4, so I get some about 2 hours earlier, giving me more time to write****.**

**And I also realized that I have had an idiot moment. On almost every chapter I have yelled at people to review even if they didn't have an account, but my account had anonymous reviews disabled. I wish someone could have told me. But whatever, you guys aren't here to listen to me rant, here is the new chapter. (15 pages in microsoft word, and a bit over 6000 words. A personal best!)**

**Disclaimer: I dont not own One Piece etc. etc. etc.**

**A New Pirate Crew Emerges - Chapter 11: That's Jiiku For You!**

* * *

The Wild Cat Pirates stood near the entrance of the castle as all of the elite guards and various other people were taken away by the citizens of the town, luckily the had managed to find a pair of Sea Stone handcuffs for Shinnosuke. The few doctors the town had attended to the guards to make sure they were in stable condition before taking them away.

Meanwhile Bearpaw, after having attended to his own wounds, was proceeding to bandage up everyone else.

Tairaa looked around and saw each of the crew members with pretty severe injuries, but nothing they couldn't recover from thanks to Bearpaw's medicine and techniques. Than Tairaa looked over towards Kurisu before talking.

"Hey, Kurisu, What are you planning to do now that this whole issue is solved?" Tairaa asked.

Kurisu paused for a second before responding. "I think I'm going to stay with you guys." He paused again before continuing, "You guys are strong and I know we will face stronger opponents, and I really want to test my skill."

Tairaa responded almost immediately, "Great! Does anyone have any problems with that... besides you, Jiiku."

Jiiku quickly lowered his hand before allowing Tairaa to continue.

"Well, once enemies and now allies. I hope we can depend on you Kurisu. Now welcome, you are now part of the Wild Cat Pirates. We can celebrate with some sake when we aren't all coughing up blood." Tairaa said as the crew, now including Kurisu, joined him in laughter.

"Man, we all got pretty beat up, but now that we have defeated the King and the new King should be taking over, what exactly is going to happen to this place? I mean, I doubt they will still remain loyal to the World Government after they didn't even help them." Bearpaw asked as he tightened the bandages around Jiiku's cuts.

"I think I could answer that." Said a voice as a man appeared in the nearby shadows.

The crew quickly got into battle positions and prepared for the worst.

"Do not worry; I am not here to harm you." The man said as he emerged from the shadows. He was a tall man wearing a long coat with a hood that covered his face.

"Who are you than? And what do you want with this island?" Akira asked as everyone began to relax.

"It is actually quite simple; I am a high ranking member in the Revolutionary Army." The man responded. "While you were inside fighting the guards, I met with the leaders of the town and they all agreed that the World Government is corrupt and should no longer control this island. So the Revolutionary Army will take control and help steer these people in the right direction."

"Wow," Most of the crew responded after hearing this.

"So you are telling me that breaking away from the World Government is that easy?" Tairaa said as he pondered the man's explanation.

"Well, the old king was a supporter of the World Government, but luckily, after the recent events, the new king is not so fond of them. So with his cooperation, we will be placing men here to guard it from attempts to retake it by the World Government, which I doubt will happen seeing the lack of interest they showed in saving it from this current disaster." The man continued.

"Well as long as you aren't going to attack us and these people are going to be safe I really don't care how it happens." Jiiku said as he examined the bandages placed around his ribs.

"You are lucky that you were part of the saviors or I would have probably killed you where you stand Commodore Jiiku, I would have never predicted such a change of path from one of such a 'historical' background as you." The man said, eyeing Jiiku and checking out his wounds.

"Well you would have had to get through us," Tairaa said back, "And trust me, we aren't weaklings."

"That may be true but…" The man said as he suddenly disappeared. Before anyone could realize what happened, he was behind Tairaa holding him in a head lock. "You will find the Revolutionary Army isn't exactly pushovers." The man than quickly released Tairaa.

"Well than I'm glad that we could be allies." Tairaa said as he held out his hand.

The man followed suit and shook Tairaa's hand, "Likewise. But you guys might want to watch out, the Marines will defiantly get a hold of this information and you guys will probably get some bigger bounties on your heads."

"Don't worry, we can handle ourselves." Cora said as the crew all became more comfortable around this man.

After several days of rest and re-supplying and talking to the locals as well as the Revolutionary Army soldiers, the crew was ready to depart.

Razar, Bearpaw and Kurisu were busy lifting the heavy barrels onto the ship and stowing them in the appropriate areas, when the mayor of the town approached Tairaa.

"You guys might want to see this before go." The mayor said as he handed over a newspaper and some extra rolled up sheets that Tairaa could already guess what they were.

"Thanks, I'll show this to my crew right now." Tairaa said as he ran up onto the deck of Poseidon's Fury and gathered the crew.

The crew sat around in a circle and Tairaa decided to open the newspaper first. There were many other stories on the front page, but a certain section of the newspaper was bookmarked by the mayor, Tairaa quickly flipped to that section.

The article read:

**Pirates Aid in Revolutionary Cause**

_Once again making headlines is the Wild Cat Pirate Crew, who have stirred up more trouble in the Grand Line. A local island recently elected a new King after the previous one died and the son was too young to take over. The Wild Cat Pirates, lead by captain "Wild Cat" Tairaa apparently stormed the castle and took out all of the guards as well as the new King allowing the Revolutionary Army to come in and corrupt the Prince. Luckily one of the injured soldiers managed to get to the video station and send video and images of the crew to Marine Headquarters, which have now begun to take a higher interest in this crew. According to a local Marine Captain "The Wild Cat Pirates have become a major focus of the pirate stopping operation in the Grand Line. Thus bounties on certain crew members as well as increased bounties on the crew who already have bounties will hopefully stir up a lead in the public and allow the government to apprehend these terrible excuses for people." Well if one thing is sure, being a pirate in this day and age is certainly becoming increasingly difficult._

The crew unrolled the pieces of paper knowing very well it would be their new bounties, everyone was secretly hoping they would be the one with the highest bounty aside from Tairaa. The bounties read as followed:

"**Wild Cat" Tairaa**

_65,000,000 Beri. Captain of the "Wild Cat Pirates"_

**Akira "Devil Eye" Kido**

_12,000,000 Beri._

"**The One Man Arsenal" Razar **(Razar's picture was of him as he was putting his shell back on after the battle)

_9,500,000 Beri._

"**Father Nature" Bearpaw Jones**

_5,000,000 Beri_

The crew all looked at the bounties and was greatly surprised that once again, Jiiku had been ignored when the bounties were being assigned.

"I'm guessing that your father probably has something to do with the reason you don't have a bounty?" Tairaa said as he turned to Jiiku.

"Most likely," Jiiku responded, shrugging it off. "I don't need a bounty to prove to myself that I am strong."

"But it's incredible Tairaa, a bounty of 65 million. Most people from East Blue barely get anywhere near that amount." Cora said as she analyzed the bounties more.

"So, which direction is the Log Pose pointing in Cora?" Tairaa asked as he picked up the article and the bounties, intending of pinning them up in his office.

"It looks like we are heading that way." Cora said pointing off in a direction opposite the harbor.

"Well, on to another crazy adventure." Razar said as he headed off towards the helm.

The crew spent the next several days doing regular activities, training and discussing new attacks and abilities with each other.

It was early one morning when Jiiku walked out on the deck to see Cora high up in the lookout with a telescope.

"Hey! What are you doing up there?" Jiiku yelled as he looked around to see if anyone else was awake.

Cora put away the telescope and jumped down towards Jiiku. "According to Tairaa's calculations, we should be approaching the next island soon, I'm just keeping watch."

"Alright, so do you know anything about the next island?" Jiiku asked, trying to pass the time.

"Not really, I just hear it's a very small village, apparently not that many people live there. But it's weird, because according to the map I have it is quite a large island, I wonder why it does not have more cities." Cora responded, slowly beginning to climb back up to the lookout.

Jiiku walked across the deck to watch a match taking place between Bearpaw and Tairaa. Tairaa currently had Bearpaw pinned on the floor.

"Come on Bearpaw, I know you can do better than that. Show me some of the power." Tairaa said as he let go of Bearpaw and jumped back.

"Fine, time to go all out than." Bearpaw said as he cracked his knuckles.

Bearpaw suddenly shot his fist forward towards Tairaa, who had no time to dodge. Tairaa brought his arms up to block the punch, when the punch connected everyone could feel the shockwave. Tairaa was thrown back several feet before sliding to a stop.

"Alright, that's great." Tairaa said, stopping the fight. "But if your opponent ever guards like I just did, here's what you want to do…" Tairaa started to lecture Bearpaw about different ways to bypass blocking.

Jiiku turned towards Yura, "Have you noticed that Tairaa has taken a very large interest in training us all lately?"

Yura paused for a moment before responding, "That is true, maybe our recent run-in with the revolutionary has affected his perspective on how strong we really are as a crew. He wants each of us to be at our best."

"I guess that makes sense, you guys aren't really the strongest people I know." Jiiku said as he laughed slightly, walking back to his room.

Some hours later, Cora called everyone onto the deck, saying she had spotted land. The whole crew assembled on the deck, Jiiku was of course the last one out. Out in the distance, the crew could see the island coming into view, over the next several minutes it got larger and larger. Suddenly the crew could hear a noise.

"What is that?" Razar said, pausing as everyone was to listen to the sound.

"I think that's some kind of musical instrument." Akira said as the island was still growing.

Eventually the crew arrived at the dock and disembarked the ship. A beach was next to the dock, and the crew could see one person sitting on the beach with a musical instrument, they decided to go and meet this person.

When the crew got closer, they could make out more about the person, first of all it was a girl. She had light red hair that went down to her shoulders, and wore a green shirt that stopped just above her bellybutton and a pair of brown pants held up by a black belt. She was holding a guitar and was playing with no concern for the people approaching her.

"Excuse me miss." Tairaa said before he was interrupted by the girl holding one finger in the air, indicating she needed a second.

The girl quickly leaned over from her sitting position to write on a sheet of paper before going back to her guitar and playing several notes. She than turned around to face the crew, she had green eyes and stared at Tairaa and the rest of the crew for several seconds before responding.

"You guys seem too mismatched to be merchants or traders, so I'm guessing pirates?" The girl said.

"Good guess, we are stopping by for supplies and just happened to hear your music, you are very good." Tairaa said, hoping she wouldn't care they were pirates.

"Man, you guys picked the wrong island to land on. You guys don't have a much updated map than I assume." The girl responded, laughing slightly.

"Our map says that this island has a small town, is there something more we should have known?" Cora said, thinking back to the map in Tairaa's office.

"Oh, you guys are in for a surprise, this island is actually the site of a Marine Base." The girl said back, still laughing.

"WHAT!?" The entire crew yelled in unison.

"Well what can you tell us about this base, miss…. Uhhh sorry, I haven't asked your name." Tairaa said, still slightly surprised.

"It's Sakie, Sakie Felgray." She responded before continuing, "Well luckily for you guys, this isn't a full Marine Base, it's a Marine Academy, so most of the people in it are pretty weak even if you get caught."

"Wait," Kurisu interrupted. "Why have a Marine Academy at such a remote place, are they trying to hide something?"

"You are quite sharp, there is actually something in that base that the Marine's don't want anyone to get their hands on." Sakie paused before continuing. "This is actually an all female Marine Academy."

"Really!?" The whole crew said as everyone became more interested, especially Jiiku.

"Yes, of course women are allowed in the Marines, they always have been. But there are so few women Marines and so many men, that if they trained together, they could get slightly 'distracted', if you know what I mean, so the Marines created this facility so that wouldn't happen." Sakie said as she began quietly playing her guitar again.

"Okay, so we should head to town and get the supplies we need and get out before the Marines see us. Shouldn't be too hard, they probably don't pay to much attention to the harbor since it's an academy after all." Tairaa said as he looked towards the town in the distance.

"Just don't get any ideas Jiiku." Cora said before looking over to where Jiiku was standing, or should have been standing because he wasn't there anymore.

"Wait, where the hell is Jiiku." Razar yelled as everyone noticed he was missing. Sakie quickly pointed out a trail of dust going away from the beach.

"I'M ALREADY HALF WAY THERE!!!" Jiiku yelled from the end of the dust trail, which was getting increasingly farther away.

"We have to catch him!" Akira yelled as he almost began running towards Jiiku.

"No need." Sakie responded. "That guy is running in the wrong direction. The base is actually the other way."

No sooner was Sakie finished talking, than the dust trail reversed and before anyone could realize it, Jiiku was back with them.

"Thanks for the help." Jiiku said before continuing. "And I could always use company." Suddenly Jiiku disappeared in another cloud of dust. When it cleared the crew noticed something.

"Where the hell did Cora and Yura go?" Almost all the crew members yelled at once.

"I think that guy took them with him. What was his name again?" Sakie said as she began to get up and put her guitar away in a case she had with her.

"His name is Jiiku." Kurisu responded, "Do you want to come with us to go get him?"

"That's odd, Kurisu, I wouldn't have thought you cared about other people." Razar said with a smirk on his face.

"Well, it's just that uh……." Kurisu said with a slight blush on his face, rubbing the back of his head. "She knows this island better than us, that's all."

"I'm sure that's the only reason." Akira said as the whole crew began to laugh.

"Sure, I'll come with you guys, and don't worry; I can handle myself in a fight." Sakie said as she pulled a glaive out of her guitar case while putting the guitar in. (For those of you who don't know what a glaive is, (I didn't at first either) it is a long quarterstaff with a blade on the end) Now that she was standing, the crew got a better look at her. She stood at about 5' 4". She had very slender yet toned muscles, and hanging from her waist the crew could see a set of bobby pins and various metal materials.

"What are all those for?" Tairaa asked as he pointed towards the pins and such.

"Oh, well I am very forgetful and sometimes misplace my key. So I have learned to pick locks so in case I ever forget or lose my key, I can get back into my house." Sakie said while slightly chuckling.

"Wait……. Why not just put your key on that giant ring?" Razar asked as the crew around him slowly began to realize the same thing and all started laughing.

"Well um…. Do you not have a friend to save?" Sakie said, trying to change the embarrassing subject.

"Oh crap! That's right! Let's move out guys!" Tairaa yelled as the crew ran out in the direction they thought Jiiku went in.

"Wait, how are we going to find him? I know Sakie knows where the base is, but what if he took a wrong turn or something. We wouldn't want to walk into the base to find Jiiku isn't there." Akira said as the crew continued running.

"I know, we just have to follow this trail of clothing." Bearpaw said as he picked up a shirt while running.

"Wait… THAT'S CORA'S SHIRT!!!!! THAT BASTARD!!!! I'LL KILL HIM!!!!" Razar yelled as he began to pick up speed and move even faster than Tairaa.

The trail of clothes became less and less frequent as the crew went along, but they could still follow the same basic path that Jiiku would have taken.

"Well, judging from the clothes we have passed so far, I would assume that the girls still have at least their underwear and bras on." Tairaa said he watched Razar get increasingly farther ahead, still yelling angrily.

"Sakie, was it? How much farther until the Marine Academy? I assume we are getting close." Bearpaw said as the crew continued to run.

"Yes, we are." Sakie responded, surprisingly being able to keep up with most of the crew.

"You must train quite a lot Sakie, especially if you can keep up with us. Why would a lady such as you need to train in any kind of fighting?" Kurisu asked, slowing himself down to be able to stay near Sakie.

"Well when you live in a town with a Marine Academy for girls, and you are a girl, you tend to get a lot of the Marines trying to get you to join. And force is the only answer these people respond to, so I have a bit of a reputation with them." Sakie said while partially laughing.

"So are you telling me you can beat most of the Marines in this academy?" Akira asked, also beginning to slow down to listen to more of Sakie's story.

"Mostly, since a lot of them are recruits, they don't have much strength anyway. There are only several that overwhelm me and they are the instructors." Sakie said, gripping her glaive harder during the sentence.

"Well don't worry about it, we may not look it but we are quite strong and no Marine instructor is going to stop us." Tairaa said with a smile on his face.

"Let's hope so." Sakie said as the crew approached a large building.

The main doors to the building were off their hinges and were on the floor inside the building, indicating someone had knocked them down from the outside. The crew could already tell that Jiiku was inside.

When the crew reached the doors, they saw no one inside, but could hear lots of screaming coming from within, mixed with the occasional moan.

The crew all looked at each other and in unison said "Jiiku is here."

"Wait!" Tairaa yelled before everyone started to run in. "We will all spilt up in different directions and spread out to find him. Sakie you can go with someone just to be safe. Alright fine Kurisu, she can go with you." Tairaa said as he saw Kurisu raise his hand at the opportunity. "Quickly run through this place and open any door that sounds like Jiiku could be inside. We will all meet back out here in 10 minutes, if you are not out at that time, we will assume you have been captured and will attack this place full strength. Agreed?"

Everyone in the crew quickly nodded their heads.

"Than move out!" Tairaa yelled as everyone ran down a different hallway.

Tairaa ran down a hallway with Roje and Jeimuzu right at his heel. Tairaa listened intently for any noise that could indicate Jiiku was in the area. Suddenly he heard several cries of "Stop that!" and other noises coming from a room at the far end of the hall.

He ran full speed and did a flying kick at the door, breaking the lock on it and opening it, but it stayed attached to the wall.

As he ran and kicked the door open he yelled "Unhand those women Jiiku!" There was silence for several seconds before Tairaa looked around and than quickly proceeded back to the door and put his hand on the doorknob as to close it.

"Sorry girls, you can go back to your showers now." Tairaa said as he closed the door with his face an extreme shade of red.

Tairaa ran for a while, trying to lose a bunch of pissed off women marines in towels. "Man, Jiiku would kill me if he saw me running from almost naked women." Tairaa said as he laughed to himself.

After finally losing them around a corner, (How else) Tairaa ran off to continue to look for Jiiku. It wasn't long before he turned around a corner to see Yura and Cora beating the hell out of Jiiku who was laying on the floor, attempting to talk, "But I thought you would like it!" he managed to say before being kicked in the face yet again.

The girls turned and saw Tairaa and were greatly relieved. But than realized they were only in bras and underwear and quickly attempted to cover themselves with their hands.

Tairaa took their clothes out of a bag that he had with him. They quickly got changed and were ready to leave. Suddenly the looked down and realized something. "JIIKU IS GONE……. AGAIN!" They all yelled as the noticed that Jiiku was no longer lying on the floor.

"Damn him, you guys go out and tell everyone that I found him and I'm just tracking him down, make sure they don't attack yet, give me 5 more minutes." Tairaa said as he pointed down a hallway that he believed would lead back to the entrance. "And let's hope that the girls I met didn't…" Tairaa managed to say before an alarm went off throughout the building. "Damn it!" Tairaa said as he covered his face with his hand.

"Don't worry, we will tell everyone, you just get Jiiku, and give him another kick for me." Cora said as she and Yura began to run down the hallway.

Tairaa spent another minute following the small trail of blood that Jiiku had left behind. Eventually he caught up to Jiiku at the end of a hallway, standing in front of a door.

"Jiiku, get away from there!" Tairaa yelled as he caught up with Jiiku, putting his hand on Jiiku's shoulder.

"But I smell the scent of women behind this door, and I will find out who it is." Jiiku said, and before Tairaa could stop him, he had already opened the door.

Both of them looked inside at the same, only to than look at each other and say "Oh boy."

Outside Cora and Yura had managed to meet up with everyone else, who were discussing what they thought had happened to Tairaa and Jiiku. Suddenly they all heard a loud crash and part of the wall of the building exploded outwards. Tairaa and Jiiku came flying out, spinning head over heels before slamming into the ground.

Both of them got up slowly, rubbing the back of their heads, quietly saying ouch.

After the dust had cleared, the crew could see three women standing at the hole; they eventually all jumped out, landing in front of the crew.

They were all relatively the same size, but each had a different hair color. The one in the middle was blonde, the one on the right was a brunette and the one on the left had red hair.

Suddenly the one with blonde hair stepped forward. "My, my, what insulting little boys, breaking in to an all girl academy. I shall teach you a thing or two about manners." She said as she pulled out a rifle and aimed right at Jiiku.

Just as she was about to fire the gun, a bullet whizzed past her head, slamming into her gun and throwing it back. She looked up to see Akira holding his pistol out, smoke coming out of the barrel.

"Don't even bother showing a gun in front of me, you guys aren't even close to my level" Akira said as he put his pistol back in its holster.

"'Devil Eye' Akira. The blonde said as she stepped forward. "You know you look almost just like that man. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree I guess." She smirked as she quickly jumped back and grabbed her rifle, inspecting it for damage, finding only a small dent where Akira's bullet had impacted.

"It seems my enemies are having a lot of information I can use recently. How about we settle this over there." Akira said while pointing to a nearby empty field.

"By all means, lead the way." The blonde said before jumping over and following Akira.

"Man, although you have different hair colors, you guys look really similar." Jiiku stated as he continued studying the women.

"Well yes of course." The red haired one answered, "We are triplets after all, I am Aki, this is Miki and the one who just left was Saki."

"And guessing from the fact you are all instructors here that means you each specialize in something different." Tairaa said as he kept his hands by Roje and Jeimuzu.

"Very good guess." Miki said, slightly pausing before continuing. "I am the weapons expert, Aki is the hand to hand fighter, and Saki is the marksman."

Bearpaw turned to face Cora and both of them nodded. Suddenly the both burst forward, Bearpaw towards Aki and Cora towards Miki.

Bearpaw threw a punch at Aki, but she quickly caught it and before anyone realized what had happened, they both jumped up onto the roof of the building.

Meanwhile Cora had unsheathed her sword and swung it at Miki, who immediately drew out her own sword and blocked the attack. They too dashed off to another area to continue their fight.

"You guys are no fun." Jiiku said with his arm crossed like an angry child. "I wanted to fight."

"Well it looks like you might get a chance." Sakie said as she saw a large group of people coming out of the main door. It was all of the marine students.

"THERE HE IS! GET HIM!" They all yelled as they pulled out various weapons and began to run forward.

"I know how to solve this!" Jiiku said, holding up his hand and counting on his fingers as he listed things. "I am going to need a large room, a very large bed, lots of loti…" Before he could finish his sentence, Tairaa smacked him in the back of the head.

"I don't even need to hear the rest of that to know it's probably not legal." Tairaa said as he readied for battle, as did everyone else except Jiiku, who was still rubbing the back of his head.

Tairaa turned towards Kurisu, "You want to try it?" Tairaa asked as he began fusing with Roje and Jeimuzu to get his tiger legs.

Kurisu looked back at Tairaa and said, "Hell yeah!" Before taking his large sword off of his back.

The crowd of Marines began to get closer as Tairaa and Kurisu got closer together.

Tairaa quickly yelled "Tiger Rankyaku!" Before firing two Rankyakus in an x shape.

At the same time, Kurisu yelled "Large Sword Style: Crimson Wave!" As he shot two Crimson Waves in a cross pattern.

As the two attacks got closer together, they formed one giant attack in the shape of a star. Both Tairaa and Kurisu yelled "Slashing Star!" The attack connected with the group of Marines, injuring almost all of them and causing most of them to pass out from the pain.

"Now you guys are hogging all of the fun." Razar said, trying to mimic Jiiku.

"Actually, how about we let Sakie deal with a couple of these guys, I want to see her combat ability." Jiiku said as he looked at the few Marines that had not been defeated by the attack.

"Sure, I'll do it." Sakie said as she readied her glaive before charging forward.

The Marines that were left pulled out swords and charged forward. Sakie quickly jumped in the air, spinning the glaive in her hands. When she dropped from the sky, the glaive slammed into the ground, breaking several of the Marines' swords. Sakie than spun around and kicked one of the Marines in the chest, sending her flying backwards into the wall of the building.

Meanwhile Akira was in a field staring at Saki, who still had her gun pointed at Akira.

"I told you its useless to try and attack me with a gun, it will never work." Akira said as he pulled out his pistol.

"Well I think I have a better chance than you do." Saki said as she raised the gun, ready to pull the trigger. "I have trained my eyes so much that to me, it looks like you are moving in slow motion."

"Well let's put that theory to the test." Akira said as he fired his pistol at Saki. She suddenly pulled the trigger and her bullet hit Akira's bullet in mid-air and they went in different directions. Akira fired several more shots, but each was knocked out of the air by Saki's bullets.

"Well than, how about this?" Akira said as he punched the ground. "Stalagmite Upper-cut!" Suddenly a sharp rock burst forth from the ground towards Saki's face, but she jumped in the air just in time to avoid it.

As Sakie was in the air, she looked down to see that Akira was no longer there. She landed and scanned in every direction, but could not find him. "Well maybe he ran away. Serves him right." Saki said as she lowered her guard for a spilt second.

Akira than silently emerged from the ground behind Saki, went right up behind her ear and whispered "Boo."

Saki was terrified and fell to the floor, dropping her weapon. Before she had time to stand back up, several stones came out of the ground and held her in place.

Akira walked towards her and began to speak. "I noticed it the whole time we were fighting. You may have the skill to fight pirates, but definitely not the nerves. You are terrified and that is probably why you teach at an academy and are not out in the field. Now about this person you say I look like." Akira got even closer as the look of terror on Saki's face increased.

Cora and Miki were continuing their battle, swords still swinging and clashes of metal that could be heard back at the Academy. Both of the fighters were getting increasingly tired with each blow.

"So, getting tired are we?" Miki said while laughing at Cora.

"Look who's talking, I've never heard someone taking deeper breaths before in my life." Cora said who readied her sword once again.

"Bring it on; no technique you have could come close to beating me." Miki said as she also readied her sword.

"Alright, you asked for it." Cora than began to lower her sword so it was by her side. "Dancing Sword Style: Quickstep." Suddenly Cora's body became almost transparent, and slowly began moving towards Miki, who stood in disbelief.

"What kind of trickery is this?" She said as she brought her sword over her head as Cora got closer. "No matter, you can still be cut!" Miki yelled as she swung her sword downwards at Cora. But once the sword contacted what should have been Cora, her image disappeared.

Cora reappeared behind Miki and before she had a chance to react, hit her in the back of the neck with the back of her sword. "Quickstep, a technique where I move my feet and body so fast in a small area I appear as a blur to the enemy. Than once I am attacked I quickly change direction and disappear only to reappear wherever I need to." Cora said as she sheathed her sword and walked back towards the others.

Bearpaw on the other hand, was getting increasingly annoyed with his battle. He has been unable to hit Aki and his attacks were growing more desperate. He charged forward and sent out a punch, Aki brought up her arms to block the attack and just than Tairaa's lesson kicked in.

"_Listen, if someone tries to block an attack by putting their arms in front of it, they are already prepared for the impact. So what you need to do is stop your attack just before you hit their arms, which will cause them to at least flinch hopefully, than you can go in for a kick to the side during that moment of hesitation in their part."_

So Bearpaw did exactly that, just before his attack hit Aki's arms, he stopped it and saw her eyes close for just a split second, but enough for him to throw his leg up and kick her in the side of the stomach, sending her tumbling around on the roof of the building.

Aki quickly regained her balance and stood back up, still feeling sore from the kick she just received. "Is that the best you got? Because I'm still standing." She said as she laughed.

"Well I guess I have to get serious than." Bearpaw said as he began to take a large breath in. "Spirit of Fire, Spirit of Water Combine: Steam Cloak!" Suddenly water burst forth from Bearpaw's hand, and as that happened he shot fire out of his mouth. The two contacted and steam was instantly formed, surrounding Aki.

Aki could only see about 2 feet in front of her, and she knew Bearpaw would take advantage of this; she prepared herself for an attack from any direction. She would try to counter-attack when he hit her. Suddenly she heard Bearpaw yell from a distance 'Spirit Launch!" Followed by a large flash of light.

Before Aki could react, a monkey jumped out from the steam and clung onto her shirt, running around and randomly ripping pieces of clothing. Aki tried hard to grab the monkey, but to no success. The monkey got onto her back, so she reached to try and grab it, but suddenly it wasn't there anymore.

"You left yourself open." Came Bearpaw's voice from behind Aki, followed by another flash of light. Aki turned around to see a bear in front of her, and before she could react, it slammed its paw against her face, knocking her unconscious.

The steam began to clear as Bearpaw returned to his human form; he looked at the unconscious body of Aki, than looked up to see Jiiku looking at him with a smile on his face.

"Well, I came up here to see if you needed help, but it looks like you really 'took care' of her." Jiiku said while laughing.

"Its not what it looks like." Bearpaw said, trying to reason with Jiiku as to why he was standing over the body of an unconscious woman with rips in her clothing.

During the walk back to the others, Jiiku was still patting Bearpaw on the back, saying things like "I didn't think you had it in you."

Once everyone had gathered and had quieted down, Tairaa spoke. "Alright guys, I guess we can't stay here much longer. I say we quickly run by town and grab supplies before the town gets news of this." Everyone looked at him and nodded.

"But what about Sakie?" Kurisu said as he motioned towards Sakie, who was still with the crew. "Those instructors must have seen her and they know who she is, she could get captured."

"Well, why don't we ask her?" Tairaa said, "So Sakie, what will you do?"

"If it isn't too much of a problem, I would like to come with you. You guys are strong and I could use some better training. Plus there is no greater inspiration for music than a great seas adventure." Sakie said with a big grin on her face.

"Alright than, it's settled! Welcome to the crew Sakie Felgray!" Tairaa yelled as the whole crew cheered.

After the crew had gotten supplies and loaded them onto the ship and set sail, the gathered on the main deck and got out the sake while Sakie played her guitar.

Suddenly Akira interrupted the happy time. "Look guys, over the past couple battles I have learned some things. I think it is time you guys know about my past. And the real reason I joined your crew."

* * *

**Well there you go! New chapter, and hopefully a very (or at least partially) satisfied audience. Also to let you guys know i slightly updated the Crew Bio page with stuff from this chapter, and I'm thinking of re-releasing the first chapter (well technically its the second, but whatever) Because looking at my traffic, people read that chapter and than dont keep reading probably because the first chapter was pretty bad, at least writing style wise.**

**Well now I can actually say this without people getting angry, please submit a review even if you dont have an account because anonymous reviews are now enabled.**


	12. Flashbacks, Flashbacks & more Flashbacks

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Hey guys, look at me putting up two chapters in about a week and a half. Well I'm hoping to be more like this for the next little while at least.

**Also a note to all the people who have characters in my story, I am going to be updating the crew bio chapter with each character's past instead of making two or three flashback chapters. So for any of you who havent sent me a character history, please try and do that if you have the time, either through a PM or e-mail would be great, try not to do it through a review but if you have to thats fine.**

**One more thing, I told my friend (who also created the character Kurisu) that I would do this. so any of you who are Air Gear fans listen (or read) up, my friend has created a new Air Gear fanfiction that features him, one of my other friends, and me in it eventually. He is a new writer and is having a slightly difficult time getting reviews from people who are not his friends. So if any of you guys want to read it, his Pen Name is CHRIS P. CHICKEN (he has submitted a review to this story so just look for him in there and click the link to find his story) or you can look up the story, it is called: The Rise of a Once Fallen King. His writing style is getting alot better and he updtes chapters alot faster than I do, so please check it out if you can.**

**Well here you go, after reading that huge rant, this is the new chapter.**

**A New Pirate Crew Emerges - Chapter 12: Flashbacks, Flashbacks, and more Flashbacks.**

* * *

Everyone stood staring at Akira.

"What do you mean the real reason?" Tairaa asked, with a hint of fear in his voice. "I thought you just liked adventure."

"Well that's part of it, but to understand the other part, you guys need to hear about my past, and I think you deserve at least that." Akira said as the crew at around him.

"It all started back when I was a child." Akira said before the story commenced.

_We now go back several years, to the hometown of Akira, on a small island in South Blue. It was a small town, consisting of around only 75 people. Akira did not mind the small town, only because of the only other child on the island._

"_Hey Akira!" Came a girl's voice as the door to Akira's home opened. It was a small house, consisting only of a small sitting room, a kitchen and two bedrooms. Akira sat at the table, eating some of the food his mother had left him. He turned around to greet the girl._

_The girl had dark purple hair that went just past her shoulders. She was only about 5 feet tall and wore a black shirt that was purple at the end of the sleeves as well as the bottom of the shirt along with a black skirt. She had lightly tanned skin and dark blue eyes. _

_Akira looked much the same as he does in the present story, with his shoulder length blue hair and sunglasses covering his eyes, one of which is red and the other blue. _

"_How's it going Megumi?" Akira said as he waved towards the girl as she walked into the house, taking off her shoes._

"_Pretty good. Where's your mother today?" Megumi asked as she took a seat next to Akira, who was still taking occasional bites of his food._

"_She's out at the shop right now, apparently they are expecting a large convoy to come by today, so she's getting out as many supplies as she can. But I guess that's life when you live on a place that's a main stop for people going on any kind of journey." Akira said as he shrugged his shoulders._

"_Well I don't like this, we get way to many pirates travelling through this area, and I feel so unsafe.." Megumi said as she slightly trembled at the thought of pirates._

"_But don't you think it is amazing, hearing all of these stories of grand adventures? Someday that is what I am going to do, travel the world in search of adventures." Akira said with a big smile on his face._

"_But than I'd be all alone, how could you just leave me like that?" Megumi said with a voice of concern._

"_Don't worry, you could come with me." Akira said, still with a big smile._

"_I don't think I could do that Akira, I can't just leave my family." Megumi said as Akira finished his meal and motioned her to follow him outside._

_When both of them arrived outside, they looked at the village, only a couple dozen buildings were visible throughout the entire village._

"_Look at this." Akira said, pausing slightly before continuing. "Is this the kind of life you want to live? Just selling goods and being pushed around by pirates."_

"_Akira, what are you really thinking? I know this has a deeper meaning than just adventure." Megumi said, getting closer to Akira while questioning him._

"_Okay fine, just look at my situation. Only my mother and I, no father, and no one will tell me anything about him. If I ask my mother about him, she just shrugs off the question and changes topic. Of course because of that everyone thinks I am the son of some terrible pirate and the whole island looks down on me because of it, you know how they hate pirates." Akira was clenching his fist as he continued talking. "I mean, wouldn't you hate pirates too if they shook down your store to get free stuff and were always breaking things that you worked so hard to get. One day I will find my father, and when I come back I will be one of the most powerful people in the whole world and I will be able to protect you and my mother and everyone else."_

_Megumi looked saddened as she heard Akira tell his story. "I'm sorry Akira; I didn't mean to hurt you."_

_Akira steadied himself before responding. "Its alright, it's not your fault." Akira said as he put his arm on Megumi's shoulder. "But I think I'm going to go on a little journey."_

_Megumi was quick to respond. "Wait! Why do you have to leave us? I want you here." Megumi said, but the last sentence was said very quietly, unheard by Akira._

"_Don't worry, I'll be back. I think I just need a vacation and than I'll be as good as new." Akira said trying to sound reassuring._

"_Just promise me you will come back and we will meet again." Megumi said as she held out her hand._

"_It's a promise! Just don't expect me back in a couple of weeks, I might be gone for several years, but I will definitely come back." Akira said as they shook hands._

_Several days later Akira had gotten enough money together to barter his way onto a passing ship so he could go to another island. Akira spent many of the next months travelling across many islands in South Blue, stopping on several so he could take a job to earn the money to continue on his journey._

_It had been almost two years since Akira had left his hometown and he was now working at a small exotic food store to be able to get the money to travel back home. One unlucky day, a group of pirates were spotted heading towards the shop that Akira worked at, they seemed to be ignoring everyone and everything else._

_Akira's manager ran up to Akira at the time of the news. "Quickly, take this and get out of here, I can guarantee this is what they want." Akira's manager said as he handed him a strange looking fruit, it had weird swirly designs and markings all over it._

"_Wait, is this a…?" Akira started before he was interrupted by the manager._

"_Yes, it's a Devil's Fruit, now you need to protect that at all costs, the last thing we need is more corrupt pirates with unnatural powers." Akira's manager said as he pushed Akira out the back door._

_Akira ran down the streets at full speed as he saw a group of pirates walk into the store he was just in. The pirate at the front had no shirt on, but a large fur coat over his back. The man behind him had a helmet covering his whole face and extremely long blonde hair that went to his waist._

_Akira continued to run despite the yelling coming from the store. Akira turned around long enough to see the store manager's body come bursting out of a wall as the pirate crew walked through the hole it created._

"_Now where is the stupid idiot who thought they could run away with a Devil's Fruit?" The man with the fur coat said as he scanned the town._

_Everyone in town quickly shut their windows and barricaded themselves in their homes. The man continued to scan and eventually saw Akira running towards the outskirts of the town. "I think that's our target boys." The man said as the whole crew began to run forward._

_Akira was running through the woods when he tripped over a branch. "Damn my clumsiness" Akira thought as he began to get up, but than he realized something, while falling his teeth had sunken into the fruit. He had eaten the Devil's Fruit._

_Two things happened to Akira. One is that he realized that it tasted terrible and almost began to puke, but than suddenly, a rush of energy went through him and without thinking he ate the rest of the fruit, still despising its bitter taste._

_As the pirate crew caught up to him, they saw him shaking on the ground. "Well look at that. We got ourselves a little baby." Came the man's voice again. "Now little baby, just hand over the fruit and we will leave you alone."_

_Suddenly the earth around Akira began to tremble and large rocks began bursting forth from the ground, flying at the man and his crew. Several people were hit and fell down, but the two main pirates seemed to be uninjured._

"_Well damn, I guess he ate it in an act of desperation. Guess we better kill him before he becomes to much of a threat." Said the man as he picked up Akira and made him stand on his feet. _

_Akira who was still slightly disoriented from the shock of gaining Devil's Fruit powers, staggered when he stood up, but was able to faintly make out the man with the mask raising some kind of bent sword and preparing to swing it. Akira stepped back just enough to dodge a killing blow, but not enough to dodge the blow entirely. _

_The sword cut across his left eye, breaking his sunglasses and causing blood to spill down onto his eye and the ground. Akira quickly covered his eye with his hand and screamed in pain._

"_Looks like we got a squirmy little guy here." Said the pirate with the fur coat as he kicked Akira in the chest and sent him flying back into a tree, causing Akira to move his hand, upon which the pirate saw something that caught his attention. He stepped forward and used his hand to open Akira's left eye, and saw that his eye was red._

"_Damn, Killer take a look at this." The man motioned for the man with the mask to step forward. "Do you know what this means, this must be his son. I grew up hearing stories about that man, and now we meet his son. 'The Devil of the Sea', boy you are one lucky person to have him as a father." The man continued to talk despite the fact Akira remained barely conscious. _

_The man named Killer finally spoke, "I would say we should take him with us, but after what I just did to him, I doubt he would take very kindly to us."_

"_I guess your right Killer," the man spoke. "Hey boy, we are going to leave you here; maybe someday you will come and meet us again. Until than, remember the name Eustass Kidd. Oh and give our condolences to the family of the man we killed, it really was out last resort." Eustass said as he and the rest of the crew began to walk away, laughing._

"_Kidd?" Was the only thing Akira could say before he passed out against the tree._

_Several hours passed before Akira awoke in a bed that was unfamiliar to him. His vision was blurry but he looked around to see a woman standing over him. "Doctor! Doctor! I think he's waking up!" The woman yelled as an older man in a white coat walked over and stood above Akira._

"_Now try not to move son, your body is pretty beaten up." The doctor said as he began to use different devices to check Akira's condition. Akira lost consciousness yet again as the doctor continued running tests._

_It was another several hours before Akira awoke, feeling much better and believed he had the ability to move. He got out of the bed with the help of the nurse and walked into a room with a mirror. He saw the large scar going over his left eye and felt it with his hand, remembering the events that took place and the fact that he had eaten a Devil's Fruit._

_After several checks by the doctor, Akira was cleared to leave the small doctor's office set up in the middle of the town._

"_Anything you need before you leave?" The doctor said as Akira began heading towards the door._

"_Sunglasses and I need to know when the next boat is leaving." Akira said, still sounding very weak._

"_Well you can have these." The doctor said as he handed Akira a pair of sunglasses that he randomly had in one of his drawers. "But are you really sure your in any shape to travel?" _

"_I've got a promise to fulfill, and no amount of injuries or a stupid scar is going to stop me." Akira said with determination._

"_Well there is a boat leaving this afternoon, but I guess I won't be able to talk you out of going." The doctor said with somewhat of a smile._

"_Not a chance." Akira said as he put the sunglasses on, covering his red eye again., with a smile on his face again._

_Akira spent the next couple hours practicing levitating small pebbles with his Devil's Fruit, because he remembered that the earth moved when he initially got the power._

"_Guess I got the Tsu Tsu no Mi." Akira said, still slightly upset that he had received this power. "Well, better make the best of it I guess."_

_Akira managed to get on the boat and pay the captain to take him back to his hometown, which luckily wasn't far from where he was currently staying. After two days of travelling he arrived at his home island and stepped onto the beach, the ship he came on already sailing away. Akira walked off the beach towards the town to witness a scene of unspeakable horror._

_All of the buildings were broken, with signs of fire damage and there were many buildings that were simply reduced to rubble. Akira stood in shock, staring at the scene that lay before him. Eventually he regained his senses and ran into the town to where his house use to be. Finding only a pile of broken wood and shattered glass._

_Akira ran farther out into the town and saw what looked like a makeshift graveyard set up on the outskirts of the town, with one man kneeling in front of all of them. Akira approached the man and recognized him as the mayor of the town._

_Akira ran towards the mayor yelling at him at the same time. "Mayor! What happened here?!"_

_The mayor stared at Akira blankly for several seconds before remembering. "Akira, is that you?"_

"_Yes it's me. But you have to tell me what happened. What happened to my mother?" Akira said, almost violently shaking the mayor._

"_Your mother is dead." The mayor said as Akira dropped to his knees and began to cry. "Pirates came about two weeks ago; they raided the whole town and killed almost everyone, those that escaped the initial wave later died from their injuries because all of our doctors were killed. And those that survived that, left. I am the only one left on the island."_

"_But wait." Akira said, trying to wipe the tears from his eyes. "What about Megumi?"_

"_She was taken by the pirates; I can only imagine what fate has befallen her now. That poor girl." The mayor said, tears coming to his eyes as well._

"_Mayor, you have to tell me more! I need to know!" Akira yelled, now standing straight up._

"_I don't know much about the actual pirates, the leader wore no shirt and had a large cross shaped scar on his back that is all I know. But he was incredibly strong; he took down entire buildings with a single attack." The mayor said, still kneeling on the ground._

"_Well I guess I can't stay here than, Megumi is waiting for me." Akira said, trying to sound positive. "But mayor, which one is my mother?" Akira said pointing towards the graves._

"_That one." The mayor said as he indicated a grave in the back corner. _

"_Please don't judge me because of this." Akira said as he walked over to the grave, and placed his hand upon the ground. Suddenly a stone in the form of a gravestone came out of the ground in front of the grave for his mother._

_The mayor stood in shock at what he just saw, unable to speak._

"_Well mayor, I think I can get you off of this island, but what you do from there is up to you." Akira said as he began to walk towards the shore. The mayor instinctively followed._

_After two weeks of practice, Akira used his powers to create a stone large enough for the mayor, himself and several crates of food and water and levitated it into the air. He than flew all of them to a nearby island where he dropped off the mayor and got another boat to another part of the sea._

_Just before Akira left, the mayor came running up to him, "I think you are going to want this, you mother told me it was your father's and she wanted you to have it when you got back." The mayor said as he handed Akira the antique pistol that he now carries on his waist._

Back in the present, the crew stood in shock as they listened to Akira's story.

"I managed to get a ride to the island in East Blue where you guys found me. And you know the story from there. But trust me that if we ever meet 'The Man with the Scar', not even you guys will be able to stop me from killing him. Than hopefully I will find Megumi along with him." Akira said as he sat back down.

Tairaa stood up, the rest of the crew still in to much shock to talk. "I wouldn't even dare think of stopping you; we may have a goal in common in fact." Tairaa said as he walked over to Akira.

"What do you mean?" Akira said, seeming very confused.

"Well if you guys remember the story of my hometown, almost the exact same thing happened to me. Maybe it was the same guy, so we may get to take him down together, deal?" Tairaa said as he extended his hand.

"Man this guy is so dead if we team up." Akira said as he shook Tairaa's hand with a big smile on his face.

"But what was that name you mentioned before? Kidd was it?" Razar asked as he stood to his feet. "Why do I feel like I have heard that somewhere before?"

Tairaa was quick to respond, "I think I have too, hang on a second." And Tairaa quickly ran into the ship and came back out several minutes later holding a newspaper. "Here look at this." Tairaa said as he set the newspaper down on the floor, showing the front page.

The crew all gathered in a circle to look at it and on the front page they saw a picture of a man with spiky red hair and aviator goggles.

"The article about this Eustass Kidd guy is frightening." Tairaa said, soundly slightly concerned. "Basically every island he has visited, he has killed many of the residents, causing him to receive a huge bounty. And it says here he is a South Blue native. Maybe this is the guy you ran into Akira."

"Well chances are we will probably meet him at the entrance to the New World, that will be where all the rookie pirates will try and make a larger name for themselves." Cora said, looking at a map she had out. She looked at the names of the islands that Kidd had been to and was tracing the path with her finger. "See just look at this." Cora said as she called the crew over. "This is the path that he has followed so far." Cora traced the outline yet again. "And this is the path we have taken." Cora traced a separate path of islands very far over from where Kidd had been.

"But I thought all the Log Poses pointed in the same direction?" Sakie said, "Don't they all lead us to the New World?"

"Well you are partially correct," Cora said, pausing before continuing. "They all point towards the same destination eventually, but until then each Log Pose points down a different path of islands, otherwise we might have encountered many pirates that are much stronger or larger than us."

"We could take any enemy that the sea could throw at us!" Razar said with great confidence.

'I don't know, have you read some of the stories about these guys. They are all making huge names for themselves. Monkey D. Luffy, Trafalgar Law, X Drake, and so many more. Compared to them Tairaa's bounty barely comes close. No offence Tairaa." Yura said before backing away slightly.

"Don't worry, I know my bounty isn't that great yet, but that can always change." Tairaa said with a big smile on his face.

"Well if we are telling stories anyway, why don't you tell us the story of how this crazy crew got started?" Kurisu asked, still sitting in the same position as before.

"Alright, I guess I can do that." Tairaa said as everyone gathered around him, except Jiiku who was muttering something about hating this story.

_Once again we go back to a time before the Wild Cat Crew. Tairaa had spent many of the last years working for a construction company on an island that had seen a population boom in the past several years. On his off time he spent many hours practicing at a local dojo, learning the ways of hand-to-hand combat. _

_Tairaa sat on the floor of his dojo, watching a sparring match between two of the other students. But the fight was the last thing on his mind, he kept remembering the time when he was sent on an errand for his company to another island_. _He had quickly gotten the supplies and orders he needed and was going to leave but decided to stay an extra day to practice his abilities with his new Devil's Fruit. __He brought Roje and Jeimuzu with him and had attempted a fusion with them, but instead went on a rampage damaging many of the buildings and injuring many citizens. Luckily he managed to escape with Roje and Jeimuzu before the local Marines captured him._

_When he got back to his apartment, he had to try and convince people that he was not the one that was in all the local newspapers. Because he had kept Roje and Jeimuzu a secret from the villagers on this island, they eventually believed him and left him alone. _

_Tairaa was so lost in thought that he didn't notice that his sensei was talking to him. "Tairaa! Tairaa!" His sensei yelled before Tairaa snapped back into reality. "Good to have you back with us, now will you please stay a bit after everyone leaves so I can talk to you." This was followed by many laughs from his fellow students._

_After everyone had left and the dojo was cleaned, Tairaa's sensei came out to talk to him. "Look Tairaa, even I, in my old age, can tell you are distracted. What's on your mind?"_

_Tairaa was slow to respond. "I think I'm just feeling a little boxed in." Tairaa paused again before continuing. "I appreciate all you have taught me sensei, but I feel like I want more of a challenge. What should I do?"_

_Tairaa's sensei looked him right in the eyes when he talked. "Maybe you should leave." This caused Tairaa to look at his sensei in a weird way. "I don't mean it in a bad way, its just that people like you don't do well cooped up in towns like this, you need a way to explore the world, see what you want to see when you want to see it."_

_Tairaa thought about it for several seconds before responding. "I think you're right sensei, than I guess this may be one of my last lessons." Tairaa had a big smile on his face for the first time in a while._

"_Don't worry." Tairaa's sensei responded, "There is not much more I can teach you anyway. You are stronger than almost any disciple I have taught in a while, maybe not master class yet, but you are certainly close." _

"_Are you sure about that sensei, how about we find out?" Tairaa said as he got into a battle position in front of his sensei. "Just a friendly match between student and teacher."_

"_Well I guess that would be an adequate parting gift." Tairaa's sensei said as he also got into a fighting position. Just than one of the students came back in, realizing he had forgotten something._

_The student saw Tairaa and his sensei about to fight and quickly opened the door to the outside and began yelling. "Guys come quickly! Tairaa and sensei are having a match!" The room was almost instantly filled with many children hoping to see and amazing fight._

"_Well an audience always makes things interesting." Tairaa said as he got ready to fight._

"_How about you have the first move than?" Tairaa's sensei said as he stood in anticipation._

"_You asked for it!" Tairaa yelled as he charged forward and threw a punch at his sensei, who quickly grabbed Tairaa's fist and stopped the attack. But Tairaa suddenly dropped down and did a sweeping kick at his sensei's legs. Tairaa's sensei quickly jumped back and dodged the attack entirely._

"_Well I guess I can't take it easy on you." Tairaa's sensei said with a smile on his face. He charged forward and started to punch at Tairaa, who was able to dodge and block all of the attacks._

_The two of them exchanged attacks for several seconds, with no one getting hit. Tairaa's sensei quickly jumped back several feet before talking quietly. "I'm never going to be able to beat this kid in terms of attack, guess I have to use a hand-to-hand fighter's greatest weapon. The counter-attack." Tairaa's sensei quickly taunted Tairaa to charge at him yet again, which Tairaa did in a heartbeat._

_Tairaa threw another punch aimed at his sensei's head, but at the last possible second, his sensei dodged to the side and quickly ran forward, closing the distance between the two fighters incredibly quickly. _

_Tairaa was surprised to see that his sensei was now almost right next to him, and he could do nothing to dodge or attack at this distance. Tairaa's sensei quickly shot out his arm and grabbed Tairaa's shirt, spun him and slammed him into the ground. "Good match." He said as he helped Tairaa to his feet._

"_Same to you sensei." Tairaa said as the two of them shook hands._

_All of the kids made noises of disappointment. "I thought that would be cooler." One of the kids blurted out._

"_Oh really?" Tairaa quickly responded turning towards the kid. "And how long do you think you could last against sensei?" Tairaa said while laughing._

_Several hours later, after all of the kids asked him a bunch of questions about how he got so strong and the long walk home, Tairaa laid down on his bed in his apartment, repeating the words that his sensei had said to him. "You need a way to explore the world. But how am I going to do that? I don't just want to go on a really long vacation." As Tairaa contemplated, a breeze from his open window blew the newspaper onto his face._

_The article on the main page was about nothing else than pirates. Tairaa quickly remembered that his father was also supposed to be a pirate somewhere out in the Grand Line. "Maybe I should carry on the family business." Tairaa said with a smirk on his face._

_Fast-forward several weeks later and Tairaa had decided that he wanted to make a pirate crew to get One Piece and explore the whole world. He had managed to use the money he had saved from his job to pay his way onto a passing ship and snuck Roje and Jeimuzu on. He had fused them both into sheets of paper so they just looked like really good pictures. During feeding time he would un-fuse them and feed them whatever leftovers he could manage to get from the food stores. _

_Several days later, Tairaa arrived at an island in East Blue and paid for two days at a local inn. He walked around the town, trying to figure out how to recruit people for a pirate crew without getting arrested. He than got an idea, he would challenge the local dojo students to matches and if any of them could beat him or do very well he would take that person to the side and talk to them, and hopefully not have that person call the Marines on him._

_The first dojo he walked in to would end up being the one that would change his life forever. Tairaa walked in to see many students sitting on the floor as the master lectured them. He waited for the master to finish speaking before he went up and talked. "Hey guys, sorry to barge in on your training session, but I would like to challenge any of your pupils who believe they are strong. Don't worry; I'm not a dojo sign hunter or anything like that."_

_The master was quick to respond. "Than what is your business fighting my students? Are you a Marine recruiter or something?"_

_Tairaa paused before responding. "Well I am a recruiter of sorts, I guess you could say that."_

_Four men in the front of dojo stood up and all yelled at the same time. "I will be your opponent!" _

_Tairaa scanned the men quickly before responding. "Don't even try it guys, I can tell you right now none of you are strong enough."_

"_But those are four of my best students." The master responded to Tairaa's insult._

"_Yes four OF your best. I want your ABSOLUTE best." Tairaa said emphasizing the bolded words._

"_We'll teach you to mock us!" The four students yelled as two of them charged straight at Tairaa and the other two ran to the two sides of Tairaa._

_Tairaa sighed before assuming a semi-battle position. "Guess I have no choice." When the men at his sides got close enough, he shot both of his elbows out and hit the men in the stomach and than extended his arms upwards and hit them in the face with the back of his hand, causing them to fall down. The two in front of him slightly paused at this and gave Tairaa enough time to do a sweeping leg kick and cause both of them to trip and as the were falling Tairaa uppercut both of them in the stomach, causing them to pass out._

"_See I told you it wouldn't work." Tairaa said as many of the younger students looked at him in awe. Tairaa continued to scan around the dojo and noticed a person standing at the back looking at the different bamboo swords hung on the wall. Tairaa could tell even from a distance that this man was powerful and he yelled out to him. "What about you? You in the back there."_

_But no response came from the man, he just continued looking at the swords. Tairaa tried to yell again. "Hey! I'm talking to you short man!"_

_All of the students simultaneously did a facepalm motion and than proceeded to stand up as if they were going to run. Suddenly the master yelled out "Everyone out of here now!" And with that all of the students quickly exited the dojo._

"_Wait, what did I do?" Tairaa asked as the students ran, but his question was soon answered as he turned towards the man he had been yelling at and realized that the man had thrown all of the bamboo swords straight at Tairaa. Tairaa quickly started dodging the swords and managed to dodge all of them, but just as he moved out of the way of the last one, the man was right in front of him._

_The man began yelling, "I AM NOT SHORT!" As he uppercut Tairaa in the chin and sent him flying upwards and slamming into the roof._

_Tairaa managed to grunt in pain before falling off the roof and hitting the floor. He got up and dusted himself off before he got into a fighting position. "It has been a while since someone has hit me that hard, may I know the name of fighter who just did it?" Tairaa said with a smile on his face despite the pain he was in._

"_My name is Jiiku. Not that you're going to remember it long after the concussion I give you anyways." Jiiku said laughing._

"_We'll just have to see about that." Tairaa said as he charged forward. Jiiku quickly threw a punch a Tairaa's head, but Tairaa ducked while running forward and managed to get behind Jiiku and shot out his leg to kick him in the back, but Jiiku turned around just in time to catch Tairaa's foot and spin it, causing Tairaa to have to jump and spin in mid-air or else his foot would have broken._

_While Tairaa was in the air, Jiiku did a swinging kick and hit Tairaa in the stomach and sent him flying towards a wall. Tairaa managed to readjust himself in mid-air and his feet hit the wall and he pushed off of it and flew towards Jiiku and punched him in the stomach. Jiiku slid back several feet before steadying himself and getting back into battle position. _

"_Not bad." Jiiku said as he had begun to smile along with Tairaa._

"_Thanks, but its not over yet!" Tairaa said as he charged forward and did a flying knee at Jiiku's head, but Jiiku managed to bring his arms up and blocked the attack. Tairaa dropped down and kicked Jiiku in the leg, causing Jiiku to stumble slightly before regaining his balance. _

_Jiiku and Tairaa both punched at each other at the same time and their fists collided, causing both men to jump back from the impact._

"_Damn this is going nowhere fast." Tairaa thought as he waited for Jiiku to attack again. "Sorry sensei, but I'm going to have to borrow copy your move."_

_Jiiku ran forward and threw a punch at Tairaa, who looked happy before he ducked under the punch and closed the distance between him and Jiiku incredibly quickly and went to grab his shirt to throw him to the floor. But to his amazement Jiiku caught his hand at a very close range and spun around, hurling Tairaa against a nearby wall. _

_Tairaa slammed into the wall with a great force before falling to the ground, he got up and dusted himself off before charging yet again at Jiiku. Tairaa did a flying kick, which Jiiku brought his arms up to block. Once Tairaa's foot connected with Jiiku's arms, he readjusted himself in mid-air and made his other leg swing over his head while spinning. Jiiku only had time to look up to see a foot coming straight for his face. Tairaa's leg connected with Jiiku's face and sent him slamming into the floor, where Jiiku remained motionless._

_Eventually Jiiku regained consciousness and opened his eyes to see Tairaa holding out his hand. "Need some help there?" Tairaa said with another smile on his face._

"_Sure. Nice match." Jiiku responded as Tairaa helped him to his feet. "No one has managed to beat me as long as I can remember."_

"_And no one has given me that much of a challenge for as long as I can remember." Tairaa said as he walked with Jiiku out of the dojo, to the semi-relieved faces of the master and the students. Tairaa apologized to the master and gave him some money to help rebuild the damaged parts of the ceiling and walls._

_Several minutes later, Tairaa was walking with Jiiku towards Tairaa's hotel room. Tairaa was the first to talk. "Look, please don't overreact to this but I am making a pirate crew and I think you would be a fantastic first mate." Tairaa said, waiting to be yelled at and eventually having to run from the Marines._

"_Sure, I'd be glad to join you." Jiiku said without a moment of hesitation._

"_What!?" Tairaa said as even he was surprised at the quickness of Jiiku's answer. "Are you sure, not that I'm complaining or anything."_

"_Of course I'm sure, you are strong and I have always wanted to travel to the end of the Grand Line." Jiiku said as he walked straight into a restaurant. "Now you just have to settle the deal by treating me to lunch." Jiiku said as he laughed._

The crew stood there taking occasional glances at Jiiku.

"Wait you beat Jiiku without your tigers?" Bearpaw said as he compared Jiiku and Tairaa in his head.

"I didn't think you had it in you." Yura said as she recalled earlier battles.

"Well now you guys know why I am the captain and not him." Tairaa said as he pointed at Jiiku. "Plus I doubt he could lead anyway." Tairaa whispered so Jiiku couldn't hear it.

"Well we're in luck." Cora said as everyone turned to listen to her. "Looks like we are getting close to the next island, everyone better get ready."

Everyone ran to their chambers to gather the materials and weapons they needed, ready to set off on another crazy adventure.

* * *

**Well there you guys go, I hope you enjoyed it and the next chapter will hopefully have alot more fighting in it, if thats what you like reading. I am also done taking character suggestions, I have one more character I am putting in the story and than thats it, if you still have a character in mind and don't care if he/she shows up as a villian, than send me a PM or an e-mail (because it would be a terrible spoiler if you put it in a review)**

**Well please Review if you want to say anything at all, as long as its not extreme flames I don't care. Any improvements I could make or if you like it just the way it is, let me know. PLEASE!!!!!**


	13. The Island of Sports?

**Hey guys, I'm not that sure what to say this time, I was by no means fast, but at least i didn't take too long. **

**Well anyway how im going to be working this arc (if you want to call it that) is much like how i did the Liberation section. This first chapter will be kind of an introduction to the situation, and the next two chapters or so will have a bunch of fights and the conclusion.**

**Well here you go, oh right disclaimer first: I dont own One Piece etc, etc**

**A New Pirate Crew Emerges - Chapter 13: The Island of Sports?**

After the news that the island had come into sight, everyone ran down and gathered their materials, and now sat on the deck. Kurisu was sharpening his swords, Akira was polishing his pistol, and Tairaa was training with his tigers.

"Guys, does anyone know anything about this island?" Tairaa said as he gathered everyone closer together.

"Not really, it seems to be a pretty remote island as it is, so I doubt it is very well known by anyone who hasn't already been there." Cora said.

"Well I have heard a bit about it," Kurisu started as everyone turned to face him. "I hear its some kind of sports island, they take all that kind of stuff incredibly seriously. There is also supposed to be another section of the island where the locals engage in more 'contact' sports, so-to-speak."

"Well I'm sure we'll find our way to that part of town somehow." Yura said, "I mean, every time we land on an island, we seem to get into some kind of situation that ends up with a bunch of us being injured. But I guess that's the fun of being a pirate." Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Well look guys. Here's the situation. After this island, we only have a short distance until we get to the beginning of the New World. We need to get as many supplies as we can and find a way to increase our bounties if possible. We don't want to get to the New World with a captain with a bounty under 100 million." Tairaa said as he held is wanted poster in his hand, focused on the number 65 million.

"Don't worry, if worse comes to worse; we can always just blow up the town." Jiiku said with a big smile on his face, and no one could tell if he was kidding or not.

"Whatever, lets just get out there and everyone remember, watch your back. There could be Marines around any corner." Razar said as he put his shell on his back after putting new weapons in it. The crew nodded and prepared to disembark the ship.

Several minutes later the crew landed on the island, a large sign visible over the docks. It read "Welcome to Emor: The Island of Sports." The crew lowered their pirate flag before arriving on the island, but still drew attention to themselves because of how they looked.

"I wish all these people would stop staring at me, it's like they've never seen a fishman before." Razar said as he glanced at all the people watching him.

"As long as none of them attack us or recognize us from our bounties we should be fine." Tairaa said as the crew continued walking arriving at the outskirts of a small town.

Just as the crew began to enter, Tairaa stuck both of his arms out to the side, stopping the crew. "Guys, I think I jinxed it." He said as the crew looked forward to see many men with swords and guns charging towards them.

The men were shouting as they ran, "Wild Cat Pirates! The money on your heads belongs to us!"

Jiiku proceeded to smack Tairaa in the side of the head, "You had to say it didn't you?"

Tairaa was quick to respond, "Sorry, guys, but this shouldn't be much of a problem. I guess there are a bunch of bounty hunting groups here hoping for people like us to walk through."

"I believe Combination Attack 3 should work." Akira said as he looked at the approaching mob of men.

"Ya, lets do it!" Tairaa yelled as the crew got into battle positions in a line going across the entire street of the entrance to the town. The entire crew yelled out attacks at the same time.

"Tiger Rankyaku!" (Tairaa)

"Rankyaku!" (Jiiku)

"Mind Pulse!" (Yura)

"Tsu Tsu Gatling!" (Akira)

"Crimson Wave!" (Kurisu)

"Spirit of Air: Tornado Palm!" (Bearpaw)

"Shell Missiles!" (Razar)

"Dancing Sword Style: Snake Arm Slice!" (Cora, and since this is a new attack I'll explain) Cora grabbed her sword and put it in her right hand, facing the oncoming mob. Her arm starts by her side and slowly rises to a straight up position using a fluid motion that starts at the shoulder. When her arm reaches the top, she pulls it down as quick as she can in the same fluid motion, causing a large blade of air to go flying towards her opponents.

"Power Slide Slice!" (Sakie, once again a new attack so I will explain) Sakie took several steps back before running forward and doing a power slide with her glaive down by her side, right as she reached the spot where the rest of the crew was she swung the glaive quickly in an upwards diagonal motion, causing a blade of air to be shot out.

Than all of the crew yelled at the same time yet again, "Wild Cat Wave!" as all of the attacks shot towards the group of bounty hunters.

The bounty hunters barely recognized what was going on before they were sent flying in all directions as wind, explosions, rocks and blades of air hit them straight on.

"I doubt we will be seeing them any time soon." Bearpaw said as the whole crew smiled at the success of their attack.

"Well I think we most certainly have been noticed, or at the very least the villagers heard us." Yura said as the crew slowly continued walking into town.

"Excuse me, you guys." Came a voice from just past the town gate as the crew walked into the town.

The crew turned to see a man leaning up against a wall. He stood about 5 feet 10 inches tall and had lightly tanned skin. His hair was dark red in color and was spiked up about 3 inches. He was very muscular, having a build almost similar to that of Razar or Bearpaw despite his small size. He wore a simple white t-shirt and blue jeans. On his hands was a pair of leather gloves with the fingers cut out, and spikes around his knuckles. He slowly stood up straight and walked towards the crew.

No one showed it, but they were all ready to attack at a moments notice in case this man turned out to be extremely violent. Tairaa was the first to speak up, "What do you want?"

"Don't worry," the man quickly responded. "I'm not going to attack you or anything, I'm not that stupid."

Everyone relaxed slightly, but still wondered why this man was talking to them.

"Look, I'm going to make this as simple as I can. You guys are pirates, and you are on Emor, so sooner or later you are going to get to the arena."

"The what?" Jiiku said, cutting off the man.

"The arena, it's a place on the island for the more 'thrill-seeking' people, if you know what I mean." Everyone in the crew nodded before the man continued. "So here's the deal, you come to the arena, you enter the tournament and you win. And in exchange, you will all receive something I think you really want."

"Wait, why do we need to enter this tournament because you say so?" Akira said sounding annoyed.

"Simple, you guys are pirates, and I assume you all want high bounties before continuing on your journey." The man could tell from the looks on the crews faces that they agreed. "Well every once in a while some high ranking marines come along and watch the fights that go on, and if they find it necessary they will hand out bounties or increase bounties on the people fighting."

"Wait, why don't the marines just arrest people on the spot if some of them already have bounties or deserve them?" Yura said, still with a slight grip on her sword.

"Well technically they shouldn't allow this kind of activity to be happening in the first place. So the leaders of the island pay the marines a little 'donation' from the ticket sales every week and in return the marines don't shut down the arena. Plus although they don't arrest people on the spot, it doesn't mean that ships won't 'happen' to be waiting when you disembark." The man said with a very serious look on his face.

"Well that sounds like fun!" Jiiku said with a big smile on his face yet again, "I say we go, thanks for the advice mister….. Uh, what was your name?"

"Oh right," the man said, seeming to have forgotten to introduce himself. "My name is Damian."

Tairaa stuck out his hand for a handshake, "I'm Tairaa, but I think you already knew that." The two shook hands, "I guess we'll be seeing you in the crowds." Tairaa said as the crew began to walk away.

Once the crew was out of sight, Damian walked off towards the arena. "Not exactly." He said with a slight chuckle.

After asking a couple interesting individuals, the crew finally found their way to the arena. It was in a part of the town with lots of old looking buildings that didn't seem inhabitable. Many of the taller buildings blocked out the arena from being seen from very far away, but upon getting closer the crew could see the enormous size of the arena.

It stood just over two hundred feet tall and was in the shape of an oval. The crew walked towards the entrance and were surprised at what they saw. A huge line of people was waiting at the entrance, and not the normal crowd you would expect from an event like this. The people lined up all seemed to be of the upper class and looked like they were paying top prices to get in to see this event.

The crew eventually found an entrance marked for combatants and walked inside. There were many dangerous looking people with a variety of weapons. A counter was in the middle with a woman sitting behind it with several of what appeared to be body guards standing beside her.

Akira was the first to speak up. "I don't know if we should do this, guys, I mean I'm all up for an adventure, but we have no idea who that guy actually was or if he's telling the truth. For all we know they could make us fight each other."

"Look, let's just ask this lady here and she can tell us. Plus, if it's going to increase our bounties, I'm all for it." Tairaa said as he walked up to the counter.

The woman looked at Tairaa and the people following him before speaking up. "Let me guess, you want to enter the tournament?"

"How could you tell?" Razar said in a very sarcastic tone.

"Okay look, here's the problem." The woman began and the looks on all the crew member's faces changed quickly. "We already have way more people signed up than we thought, so you're going to have to go through a preliminary fight to make it into the actual tournament."

"Alright, that's fine with us, but we are first time combatants, do you mind explaining to us how this tournament actually works." Bearpaw said.

"Certainly. First of all there are two different tournaments taking place, the single fighter tournament, and the group tournament, which you guys will be in. In the group tournament, you can have a maximum of ten members, and a minimum of two. When you are matched up with another group, a type of battle will be chosen at random. It will either be a 1 on 1 tag team match, or a group on group match." The woman stopped for a second to see if anyone had questions.

"So what's the difference between the 1 on 1 and the group match?" Kurisu said as he got more excited.

"Well in the 1 on 1 tag team match, each team sends out one member at a time to fight, and this fight continues until one fighter is unable to continue fighting, surrenders, or dies." The woman said still sounding serious.

"Wait! Killing people is allowed?" Cora said with a hint of disgust in her voice.

"Yes, just don't make it too dramatic. Anyway, for a 1 on 1 match, if one team has more members than another, certain members may be required to fight more than once, depending on the circumstances. Which is why entering with a team of two is very dangerous. But we have had teams of two that have defeated teams of ten, it happens." The woman paused slightly before continuing. "Anyway, in a group match, it's exactly what it sounds like, all the members of your group versus all the members of the other team. We will usually only do these types of fights if the teams have a similar number of members. Also, the rules are anything goes, Devil's Fruit powers, guns, swords, anything. But please do not disturb or disrespect any of the guests here, or you may be 'removed' from the tournament. So are we all clear on the rules?"

The crew nodded in agreement, and spent the next little while filling out forms so that they could be identified by the announcers. The crew were given special seats in the crowd and told that their fight would be at the end of the first round of preliminaries, so they could sit back and watch the other fights for now.

The first couple fights were nothing special according to Jiiku, just some regular off the street thugs who wanted to try and make a name for themselves. It was only at the fight right before the crew that everyone got interested. It was a group of bounty hunters versus a gang from another island who wanted to prove themselves. Each group had 8 members so it was decided that they would participate in a group battle.

The bounty hunter groups came out wielding all forms of weapons, from guns to swords to maces. Surprisingly to everyone in the crowd, 7 members of the gang sat back against the wall while one member walked forward. This one member walked forward with amazing confidence while the bounty hunters yelled at the gang for being crazy and wanting this man to die. From the spot the crew was sitting, they could not get a great view of him, they could only see that he had incredibly long black hair and didn't appear to have any weapons at all.

"Man, this is going to be over fast." Sakie said as she laughed at the stupidity of the gang.

"Don't be so sure about that." Jiiku said as he closely observed the man. "I've always been a pretty good judge of someone's potential, and this guy is giving off an incredibly strong aura. Why else would those other guys let him go out by himself?"

"I'm going to have to agree with Jiiku." Tairaa said as Sakie looked increasingly annoyed.

The fight started and the members of the bounty hunting group charged forward towards the one man, who quickly disappeared in a burst of speed and before anyone could realize what was happening, three members of the bounty hunting group dropped to the floor and passed out.

The bounty hunters turned around the see the man leaning against their wall wagging his finger, probably making a threatening remark. But once again, without a hint of fear, the bounty hunters charged forward.

"This is over." Tairaa said as he stood up from his seat, "We should go get ready for our fight." Tairaa looked back and was surprised to see that all of the crew was already up and getting ready to leave. "So you guys could tell it to huh?" Tairaa said as the crew nodded. "That guy isn't even the strongest one in that group."

The crew got to the spot where they would be walking out to the arena and could still hear the crowd cheering for the gang and the announcer was going crazy. They could see the unconscious bodies of the bounty hunters being dragged down the hall by the clean up crew.

Soon the announcer calmed down and started talking again. "Alright, let's see if our next fighters can top an amazing performance like that! Please help me welcome the Wild Cat Pirates!" The crowd began cheering and the crew walked up the hallway and into the arena. The arena was divided into two circles. The outer circle was like a holding area so that for one on one fights, the other members couldn't intervene. The inner circle took up most of the arena and was where the actual fights were held.

"Now help me in welcoming their opponents, the always entertaining Blood Hounds!" The crowd began to cheer again, a lot of them shouting out names that the crew assumed belonged to the opposing team.

The announcer let people settle down before continuing. "Well since the Blood Hounds have a group of six and the Wild Cat Pirates have a group of 9, we will make this a one on one fight, teams, pick your first fighter!"

It was very little time at all before a member of the Blood Hounds walked out and was greeted by amazing applause from many people in the audience.

"Okay, who is going to…." Tairaa started but before he could finish he was cut off by Jiiku.

"I'll go!" Jiiku said in a very serious voice.

"Why do you want to go first?" Bearpaw said, as he was going to ask to go first.

"Those girls over there blew kisses to this man; no one takes girls when I could get them!" Jiiku said with 'flames' shining in his eyes.

"Well he's serious, go for it Jiiku." Tairaa said as Jiiku walked out the open gate, which quickly shut behind him.

Without any warning, Jiiku charged forward and punched the man in the stomach, he grabbed his stomach and crippled over in pain. Jiiku walked over to the side of the arena and stared right at the women who blew kisses to the other fighter. "Why are you wasting your time with a loser like him, when you can have a ……… hold on a second." Jiiku said as he reached his hand out to the side and blocked a punch from the other man, who quickly jumped back.

"You're pretty good," said the other man, "But there is no way you are stealing my fan girls!" he yelled as he charged forwards towards Jiiku and punched as hard as he could, which managed to hit Jiiku in the chest, sending him tumbling backwards and slamming into the wall of the arena.

"Damn, you have some power." Jiiku said as he got up and dusted himself off, "But nothing I can't handle." Jiiku smiled and taunted the man to charge him again, and the man happily obliged. The man readied another punch to hit Jiiku.

"Man, is punching the only thing you can do?" Jiiku said as the man got closer. "Oh well. Improve Fighting Style: Toro!" (Please don't yell at me for this, I don't know a lot about bullfighting but I have watched enough cartoons to know that that is how it happens in them, I by no mean attempt to know anything about the actual event) Jiiku yelled as he pulled a red cape out of nowhere and held it to the side of himself and the man ran through it in confusion.

This continued for many more punches before the man yelled out, "Stop this idiocy and let's end this!"

"If you insist." Jiiku said as he threw away the red cape. The man charged and threw another punch. Jiiku caught the punch in mid-swing, than kicked his leg out at the man's knee and broke his leg. But before the man could fall over in pain, Jiiku grabbed the back of his head and pulled him towards his Jiiku's knee and threw his knee forward at the same time, knocking the man out on contact.

Jiiku than walked back towards the side of the arena and found the girls again. "Come find me after the fights and I can show you a 'great time' if you know what I mean." Jiiku said with a big smile on his face as he walked away. The girls looked at each other in amazement.

Tairaa gave Jiiku a high-five as he arrived back at their spot. "Nice job, they're pretty easy I guess?"

Jiiku was quick to respond. "There is no one I can't beat when women are on the line." As he flashed his almost trademarked smile.

Bearpaw was next up, his opponent looked already afraid before they even started fighting. "What's the matter?" Bearpaw said in a mocking voice while cracking his knuckles, "Afraid of little old me?"

"Yo…you don't fri…..frighten me!" The man attempted to say with as much confidence as he could, with his knees still shaking.

"Well that's good, and lets hope you're not afraid of animals too." Bearpaw said as he began running forwards. "Spirit Launch!" A flash of light covered the man's eyes until right in front of him stood a bear. "Boo!" was all the Bearpaw managed to say before the man passed out from sheer terror.

Bearpaw transformed back into his normal self and looked towards the Blood Hounds team, "Remind me why you guys are favourites again?" Bearpaw said as he walked back towards his area.

Cora decided that she wanted some practice and went next. When she walked out she was greeted with many whistles from the crowd, resulting in a loud yell from Razar. Cora turned towards the crowd, "Sorry, I already have someone." As she motioned towards Razar, the men were quick to quiet down.

Cora's opponent also had a sword, and was fast to jump forward into an overhead swing. Cora brought up her sword and blocked it. The two attempted several hits before Cora managed to cause a small cut on her opponent's leg, causing him to wince in pain for the second Cora needed to knock his sword out of his hands.

"Surrender, now!" Cora said as she held her sword against his throat.

"Never!" The man yelled as he quickly jumped to the side and managed to get his sword and charged forward at Cora.

"Well, it's your loss." Cora said as she readied her sword. "Dancing Sword Style: Graceful Ballet!" She quickly disappeared and reappeared behind her opponent and swung her sword to the side before cuts burst forth on his body and he fell to the ground.

Cora wiped off her sword, put it back in her sheath and walked back to the crew, signalling the next person to get ready. Akira quickly stepped up and decided he wanted to fight next.

His opponent was one of the stronger looking members of the group, he wielded an axe and looked like he knew how to use it.

Akira stood still while the man charged forward with his axe over his head, he went for an overhead swing, but Akira quickly jumped to the side to dodge it, but this man was fast an was already swinging again. Akira managed to pull up a rock wall to block the axe when it was only inches from his head. Akira jumped back several feet and waited for the man to charge again.

The man did and Akira quickly hit the ground with his foot and before the man could notice, the earth had covered over his feet and stopped him from moving. His axe continued forward because of momentum and slammed into the ground nowhere near Akira, but Akira still had the earth cover over the axe just in case.

Akira walked slowly up to the man, earth breaking off of the ground and surrounding around Akira's fist. Akira got right up in front of the man, who was trying as hard as he could to get out of the stone holding his feet.

"Too late!" Akira said as he readied his fist for an uppercut. "Tsu Tsu Punch!" Akira yelled as he slammed his fist into the chin of the man, knocking him out instantly and causing many gasps from the audience.

Akira made a rock levitate and began waving at the crowd, but when reaching over to wave to the people on the other side, slipped and fell off the rock, slamming into the floor.

The entire crew did a quick facepalm and looked towards Akira, who was already standing up and dusting himself off, like nothing had happened.

"I thought he had got over the whole clumsiness thing." Razar said as he watched Akira walk back towards their part with an embarrassed look on his face.

"I guess not." Tairaa quickly answered, before quickly continuing. "Well there is only two more of them, who wants to go next?"

"I might as well show you guys what I'm made of, you haven't seen me fight that much." Sakie said as she readied her glaive and walked out onto the field, once again met by many whistles from the more rowdy men in the crowd. Sakie easily ignored them.

Sakie's opponent held a staff and was spinning it at a great speed, attempting to show how skilled he was. Sakie followed suit and spun her glaive around in a beautiful display that mesmerized her opponent. She than suddenly brought down the glaive and slashed the staff in half.

Her opponent now only had two small sticks, one in each hand, but he didn't seem phased, he continued to spin them and ran forward at Sakie, who had to move quickly to be able to block all of the attacks coming at her. One managed to slip through and hit her in the side of her stomach, causing her to bend down onto one knee. Her opponent quickly kneed her in the chin, sending her flying into the air, but she adjusted herself in mid-air and landed on her flat feet.

"Ok, that's it!" Sakie yelled as she charged forward. She stopped when she was only a couple feet from her opponent. She held her glaive directly in front of her and yelled "Shredding Solo!" as her wrists began moving incredibly fast and the glaive disappeared because of how fast in was moving in a small motion. Sakie than moved forward as fast as she could and disappeared as well, suddenly reappearing behind he opponent, who turned around only to have what seemed like hundreds of little cuts burst forth on his body and he fell to the floor.

Sakie put the glaive back on his back and walked back to the crew, where she was greeted with many amazed faces.

"How did you do that with a weapon that big?" Cora said as she studied the glaive. "I mean I can understand it a bit better with a sword, but a glaive?"

"It's all in the wrists." Sakie said as she smiled. "Guitar playing has to do something for you besides sound great." She continued grinning even larger.

"Hey Kurisu, do you want to go next?" Tairaa said as he looked over towards Kurisu, who had been asleep for most of the match.

"What, are all the weaklings dead yet?" Kurisu said, wiping his eyes as he stood up.

"No, there is one left, and he has two swords, I thought maybe you could teach him how to properly use those." Tairaa said with a little chuckle.

"Fine, but you owe me a drink." Kurisu said as he reluctantly walked out onto the field.

His opponent came charging at him right away. Kurisu bent over and hit a button on his boots that launched two daggers into the air, which Kurisu quickly caught and brought over his head to block both of the swords.

Kurisu continued only to block the man's attacks, critiquing him as he did it. "Your swings are too wide." He said as he ducked under a side swing. "You give your opponent too much time to react." And Kurisu blocked another swing that came from the other side.

The man quickly tried a very tight swing, with not much of a backswing, but Kurisu still managed to block it with one of his daggers. "That was better, but you don't have enough power, you need to be able to swing small and strong, like this!" And without warning Kurisu swung his dagger in a diagonal motion, causing a huge cut across the man's chest, despite the fact he was only using daggers.

The man didn't back down, but instead came charging forward and swinging rapidly at Kurisu, slowly pushing him back. "Good, very good, not giving your opponent any time to counter-attack." Kurisu said as he was taking steps back and still blocking. "But you left your self open to attacks like this!" Kurisu yelled as he quickly ducked and did a leg sweep and tripped the man, and while he was in mid-air, Kurisu kicked the swords out of his hands.

Once the man landed on the ground, Kurisu proceeded to stab him in both of his legs. "Don't worry, I missed all the important stuff in there, just rest for a couple days and you'll be fine in no time. Heck, remember what I taught you today and maybe in 20 years you may be a match for me with my regular swords.

Kurisu walked back to the crew and to a surprised Tairaa. "Wow, I was kind of kidding with the whole lesson thing, but whatever floats your boat I guess."

The announcer came over the megaphone (or Den-Den Mushi or whatever) in an astounded voice, "Well, it appears that the Wild Cat Pirates have completely swept the battle with the Blood Hounds, let them hear it!" Parts of the crowd proceeded to boo, while others began clapping, leaving the crew very confused.

It was when they were walking out of the arena for their break that someone finally came up to them and explained the situation. It was a fighter from the one on one tournament, who ran up behind Tairaa and put his arm on Tairaa's shoulder and talked to him. "So I heard you guys were the one's who defeated the Blood Hounds?"

"Ya that was us. What's so special about them anyway?" Tairaa said as the crew stopped walking to listen to this man.

"Man, no one told you? Okay look, they are all somehow related to most of the nobility who are in the stands, many of them are like the second or third son, who isn't guaranteed much wealth, so they decided to try and make money in the arena." The man started, and most of the crew realized the problem now. "Most people who go up against them just pretend to fight them and lose, but since you guys beat them, almost half of the audience is going to be using their influence to get you. And since the Marines are here for this tournament, I assume you will most likely be attacked by no less than 3 Marines ships when you leave this island." And with that the man left, leaving the crew to think over their situation.

That night the crew took rotations sleeping, just in case someone hired people to come after them. Luckily nothing of that sort happened and the crew got a pretty good sleep before the next day's preliminary fight.

This time the crew had their fight as one of the first, but they really could care less, they all once again walked out onto the arena and were greeted with a mix of boos and cheers once again.

This time their opponents were a mercenary group who just 'happened' to make it into the tournament when the semi-weak team that the crew was suppose to face, 'failed to show up.' The crew knew what really happened, except Jiiku, who bought the lie entirely.

It was decided that the fight would be a group fight since the other team had ten members and the crew had nine. All of the crew walked out into the arena, but only Tairaa, Razar and Yura stepped towards the center of the ring, while everyone else sat back.

"Let us handle this, guys, you got all the fun yesterday." Razar said as he cracked his knuckles.

"Multiple opponents for each of us, quite the risk taker, aren't we Captain?" Yura said as she looked over at Tairaa.

"Yup, I'll take the four in the middle, Razar you take the three on the right, and Yura take the three on the left. Everyone got it?" Tairaa said as he fused with Roje and Jeimuzu, to the surprise of the crowd.

"Let's do it!" Both Razar and Yura responded as their opponents charged at them.

One of Yura's opponents suddenly stopped charging at her and began swinging his sword at his ally. Who had time to dodge but was quite surprised. "What are you doing?" He yelled as he dodged sword blows.

"I don't know, I can't control my body. It feels like its being pulled magically" He yelled back as he continued swinging at his teammate. "It must be that woman; she probably has a Devil's Fruit."

Suddenly the one man managed to grab the other's arms, stopping him from swinging. "This should be good until he can get to the woman." The man said as he looked over at his one other teammate, a tall very strong looking man who had stopped charging to watch the two of them fight each other. 'What are you doing you idiot? Get her!" He yelled as Yura suddenly lifted both her hand and slammed them together, causing the two fighters who were attacking each other to slam into each other face first, knocking both of them out.

The one remaining fighter charged forward and managed to slam into Yura, sending her flying back and slamming into the wall of the arena, greeted by many cheers from the crowd.

Meanwhile Razar had managed to detach his shell and throw it as his three opponents. It slammed into one of them straight on, knocking him out almost instantly. The shell than spun back and Razar managed to catch it again. "Time to try one of the new toys out." Razar said with a big smile on his face.

Razar held his shell right in front of himself, and yelled "Shell Needle Machine Gun!" And suddenly, the sharp tips of Razar's shell began shooting out one after another in quick succession and than somehow, a new spike managed to grow back in place of the old one.

The spikes found their target and were going right towards both of the remaining people, but one of them jumped to the side quite easily and managed to dodge all of the needles. The other person was not as fortunate and got hit by many needles, causing blood to get splattered in many directions and the man to pass out.

Razar looked over at the one remaining guy just in time to see him start throwing what looked like shuriken at him. Razar managed to bring up his shell in time to block the shuriken, but had no time to attack as his opponent never stopped throwing. Razar looked back and saw Yura be slammed into the wall, he quickly jumped to the side and threw his shell into the ground while making it spin, causing dirt to be thrown up into the air and blocking his opponent's field of vision.

Meanwhile, Yura was being held in the air by her neck by her opponent, who looked over at the crew, still leaning against a wall, seeing them showing no fear at all. ``Do you guys not care for her life? What a pathetic crew you must be." The man began laughing and slowly applying more pressure.

It was Jiiku who spoke up first. "We don't have to do anything. That's his job." Jiiku said as he pointed to the side.

The man had just enough time to turn his head before being punched in the face by Razar and sent flying backwards. Yura managed to land on her feet and catch her breath,

"You okay?" Razar asked as he watched the other guy slowly get back to his feet.

"Ya, I'm fine, how about a swap? I always did hate the big opponents, they usually win against me." Yura said with a smile on her face.

"Well than have fun with that guy, he likes to throw shuriken, just so you know." Razar said as he ran off towards the big guy again.

"Thanks." Yura said as she walked towards the smaller guy, who could now see because the dust had cleared. The man quickly began throwing shuriken at her, but she managed to stop them all in mid air with her Devil's Fruit power. She threw them back at him but he managed to dodge all of them.

The man quickly figured out what he needed to do and charged full speed towards Yura. "Close range is your weakness." He yelled as he was mere inches from Yura.

"So close." Yura said before she suddenly brought her hands really close to her body. "Mind Shockwave!" She yelled as she pushed her hands out to both sides, an blast of purple energy slammed into the man, sending him flying backwards. But before he could regain his balance in mid air, Yura pulled up a wall of purple energy right behind him and he slammed into it at high speeds, knocking the wind of out him, giving Yura time to lift him up with her powers and slam him into the ground, finally knocking him out.

Razar was having almost as hard a time with his new opponent, they were exchanging blows, neither one backing down even an inch. Both beginning to spit out a little bit of blood.

Razar finally just screamed out "That's it!" And stuck his hand into his shell, he pulled it out just as fast and hit his opponent as hard as he could, somehow managing to knock him out. Upon closer examination, Razar's fist was now coated in some kind of metal glove that would obviously increase his punching power. Now it was just down to Tairaa.

Tairaa made quick work of the first guy, charging forward and kicking him straight in the stomach, but than twisting his leg and giving an extra push, sent the man spiralling through the air until he slammed into the wall. Before Tairaa could move back, two of the other guys were around him, one on each side.

But just as they went to punch his head he ducked down and went into a handstand, kicking up and hitting both of them square on their chins and knocking them out. Now just the one man remained. He wasted no time and charged at Tairaa and kicked him while he was still in his handstand, sending him tumbling head over heels several feet back.

Tairaa stood up and dusted himself off and could see his opponent would give him no rest, and was already charging forwards again. Both of them attempted to land blows but both of them were also blocking every hit. The stalemate was finally ended when Tairaa managed to catch the man's fist and spin him in mid-air, he than proceeded to kick the man as hard as he could in the stomach and sent him flying into the air.

Tairaa jumped after him and got above him and in mid-air, changed direction to that he was facing looking down at the man he had kicked. He than yelled out "Tiger Geppou Pounce!" and kicked his legs as fast as he could in mid-air, he managed to kick the air hard enough to send himself flying at a high rate of speed towards his opponent. Tairaa's fists connected with the opponent and sent both of them flying towards the ground, causing a huge crater upon impact.

Tairaa emerged several seconds later from the crater looking relatively unharmed. Once again the crowd burst into a mix of cheers and boos.

The crew yet again had to wait in the stands for the last couple matches to happen, but they could bare with it because they wanted to see the gang from the last day fight again. Unfortunately their hopes were denied because the group that was suppose to fight the gang surrendered before the match even began.

"I guess they knew their limits." Akira said as he watched the last fight. "And those guys are way above most people's limits."

The rest of the day was uneventful until it came to the announcement of all the teams who had made it into the actual tournament. The crew was forced to go out onto the arena one more time to see all of the other teams. Most people were looking towards the one gang and the Wild Cat Pirates as the two biggest sources of competition.

Once people had quieted down, the announcer came on and began to speak. "Ladies and Gentlemen, please give a big round of applause for your qualifying fighters!" The crowd soon erupted with cheers. "Now join me in welcoming someone you should all remember. The three time champion of the one on one tournament, Damian!"

"What!" Yelled the entire crew as the crowd erupted into another set of cheers and applause.

Soon Damian's voice was heard, "Welcome fighters, I hope you enjoy yourselves here at our tournament, and don't forget, whoever wins this whole tournament can pick one fighter in their team to fight me, for an cash prize of 50 million Beri. Best of luck to all of you. You're going to need it judging by the competition out there." Damian ended with a slight chuckle.

"I think we may need to have a talk with out friend the 'champion'" Tairaa said as the crew walked out of the arena. All of the members nodded in agreement.

* * *

**Well, I hope you guys enjoyed it, I typed it up pretty fast and i know i could have done a hell of a lot better with the fights, but i want to save all the good action for the next couple chapters.**

**And as always, please review, I would like to know how I'm doing and such, I need some confidence boosters here, or some constructive critisism or something.**


	14. The Arena Finals Part 1

**Welcome, to another chapter that I finally managed to put up. I have to say I'm very proud of myself for this chapter, 23 pages in Microsoft word and 10,600 words, my longest ever. **

**So I hope you have as much fun reading the story and the fights as i did writing them. Also as always, please review, I'm looking for ways to improve my fight writting, whether it be more description, longer fights or whatever, please tell me.**

**Well without further delay, here it is**

**A New Pirate Crew Emerges - Chapter 14: The Arena Finals - Part 1**

The crew spent many hours attempting to locate Damian. The people who ran the arena wouldn't talk to them about him and none of the contestants or spectators knew where he lived.

Eventually the crew was forced to call it a day and head towards a local inn since the next part of the tournament didn't start for another two days. They paid for two rooms and went up to get some sleep.

In one room all the men laid on the beds after putting away their stuff.

"I can't believe he's actually working for the arena." Akira said as the crew reflected on Damian.

"We should have expected as much, he probably just saw how strong we looked and was trying to get better business for the arena." Tairaa said as he got into his bed.

"Whatever, if it gives me an excuse to punch his face in, I'm all for it." Razar said with a slight chuckle.

"Ya right, like we would pick you to be the one to fight him if we win this tournament. It would obviously be me who would fight him." Jiiku said as he got into his bed.

"Guys, can you just stop arguing for a second. We can figure out who will fight Damian if we actually make it that far." Tairaa said as he tried to get some sleep.

Meanwhile, in the girls' room, the girls could hear the loud talking from the men's' room.

"I'm guessing they are arguing over who gets to fight Damian." Cora said as she leaned her sword up beside her bed.

Sakie was already almost asleep. "I really hope they shut up soon or I may have to go make them. I want my sleep."

"I think I can help with that." Yura said as she placed her hand against the wall and closed her eyes."

Suddenly, in the men's room, Jiiku was sent flying up into the air and slammed into the ground. The guys quickly got the message.

"Okay, sorry, we'll be quiet now." Kurisu responded, not wanting to be the next one to be thrown.

The crew quickly fell asleep and the rest of the night passed without incident. The next morning Tairaa was the first one awake, as usual, and found a small envelope inside his room that had been slid under the door. He opened it and read through it before waking everyone up and gathering them in the main lobby of the inn.

"Well guys, it appears that we have to go to the arena today to take part in some kind of 'strength test'. This letter was left at our door and that's pretty much all it says." Tairaa said as he passed the letter around.

"Well lets get going than, I want to see what kind of strength test it is." Jiiku said before walking away, making the rest of the crew follow.

The crew arrived at the arena to see all of the contestants waiting in front of the main gate. No spectators were seen so the crew assumed there wasn't going to be any fighting. After several minutes the announcer came out and escorted all of the fighters inside. Once everyone was inside, the announcer got his Den-Den Mushi Megaphone and began to yell into it.

"Attention contestants, as you all know from the letters you have received; we are having a strength test. Now this test in no way affects the tournament or who you will be fighting, it just gives a kind of bragging right to the 'winner' so to speak." The man paused before continuing. "Now we will be measuring your 'power level' or Douriki as it is called. Normally we need a special person with a special kind of ability to measure this, but luckily, we have received a generous donation from Dr. Vegapunk of the Marines."

The announcer motioned towards his assistants, who were bringing in a device that looked like a regular punching bag hooked up to some kind of computer.

"Now it's very simple, all you have to do is come up here and hit this bag with everything you've got. There is no way to break this bag unless you are stronger than a vice-admiral and for those of you with Devil's Fruit powers, do not use them, we wish to see how strong you are without help." The announcer continued.

"Sorry guys." Tairaa said as he pet Roje and Jeimuzu.

One by one people from different groups stepped up and punched or kicked the bag as hard as they could. Finally the Wild Cat Crew got a turn, and Cora was slightly upset because she couldn't use a sword. As the rest of the people had, they punched the bag and went back to their spot.

"Now, I will only announce the top 5 people in this group, but each team will get a sheet with all of their members as well as the Douriki ratings of each member. And remember, when measuring Douriki, the common Marine soldier is about 10 Douriki and anything over 500 is easily considered superhuman." The announcer waited for everyone to calm down before proceeding.

"Now coming in at number 5 is Razar of the Wild Cat Pirates with a Douriki of 1050." Razar was slightly depressed he wasn't higher. "At number 4 is Big Jack, of The Gold River Mercenary Group with a Douriki of 1195." The fighters looked as one of the fighters in the incredibly strong mercenary group raised his hand in triumph.

"He's mine." Razar whispered under his breath before the announcer continued.

"At number 3 we have, Tairaa of the Wild Cat Pirates with a Douriki of, get this, 2000! Amazing!" The crew all gave Tairaa a quick pat on the back. "But wait, we still have number 2. And number 2 is, Jiiku, also of the Wild Cat Pirates, with a Douriki of 2450! What an incredibly strong crew, three members in the top five."

"Jiiku!" The crew shouted as they looked at him as he was flexing his muscles. "I didn't know he was stronger than you Tairaa!" Sakie said as the crew still looked in shock as their captain wasn't the strongest of their crew.

"Well I could have told you that, of course Jiiku is stronger than me. But don't forget, that machine doesn't take into account Devil's Fruit powers, when I fuse with Roje and Jeimuzu my power grows incredibly." Tairaa said, trying not to look depressed by how much Jiiku had beaten him by.

"But just wait until you hear the number 1 value. It's Noboru of the Gold River Mercenary Group, with a Douriki that barely seems possible, at 3100!"

The mercenary group instantly broke in cheers, and the crew could see the look of fear in everyone else's eyes as they looked at the mercenary group.

"Looks like we have some competition." Kurisu said as he sat down on the floor.

The crew received the paper with their ratings on it and it read as follows:

Wild Cat Pirates

Jiiku – 2450

Tairaa – 2000

Razar – 1050

Bearpaw – 975

Kurisu – 875

Akira – 750

Sakie - 350

Cora - 250

Yura – 225

The crew all were amazed at the distance between some of the numbers, especially how close Bearpaw had come to making it into the top 5.

"Well I guess we aren't superhuman." Yura said as she reviewed the girls' numbers.

"Don't worry about it, you guys fight with weapons mostly anyway, physical strength doesn't always relate to how good you are with a weapon." Tairaa said smiling towards the girls. "It's not like this is going to affect how I feel about your abilities or something, its just a stupid measuring system, and plus, if a normal marine is at 10, you guys are probably equivalent to a whole squad, or even a whole ship."

"A common thing to say for a guy who had his second in command beat him!" Jiiku said as he patted Tairaa on the back, seeing a hint of anger in Tairaa's eyes.

"Alright guys, calm down. Let's just worry about who our next opponent is going to be." Bearpaw said as he pointed towards a board that was being put up near the entrance to the arena.

The crew went to examine it and saw that there were 16 teams that were divided into two branches, which met in the finals.

"Well I can tell you guys right now who is going to be in the finals." Kurisu said as he looked more closely at the board.

"How would you know that?" Akira questioned as he tried to find what Kurisu was looking at.

"Well look at this, we are in this branch here." Kurisu said as he pointed towards a small box on the first branch with Wild Cat Pirates written in it. "And that mercenary group is over here." Kurisu continued while moving over to the other branch and pointing to a similar box. "So unless something incredible happens where either us or that group is eliminated, we should probably meet in the finals."

"Well whatever, lets just get back to the inn and rest up for our fight tomorrow." Tairaa said as he began walking out, and even the crew could see the concern in his eyes.

Everyone looked at each other almost nervously before Jiiku spoke up. "Don't worry, he'll be fine once we kick some ass." Jiiku said as he smiled, the crew nodded in agreement and followed Tairaa back to the inn.

Late that night, a man in complete black clothing was jumping around the roof tops towards the inn the Wild Cat Pirates were staying at. He located their room and slowly opened the window, careful to not make a sound. After spending many hours in the dark his eyes had grown accustom to it. He quickly found Tairaa's bed and went beside it. He drew a knife from his belt and raised it over Tairaa's heart.

He took a deep breath and thrust downwards, but just before the blade hit its target, Tairaa's hand shot out and grabbed the wrist of the assassin. Before the assassin even had time to react, Tairaa had flipped out of bed and twisted the man's arm behind his back and slammed him into the floor. This woke up all the men in the room and the women came rushing over.

The crew looked on as Tairaa activated his Devil's Fruit powers and once the light cleared all the crew could see was the man's head sticking out of the floorboard.

"These powers come in very handy for interrogation, or holding. But man, I needed this, hitting something feels so good when you are depressed." Tairaa said, now smiling.

"Told you." Jiiku said to the crew, as he also began smiling.

"I don't even have to ask this guy any questions; I'm sure even Jiiku can tell right now that he was probably sent by the families of those noble fighters we defeated." Kurisu said as he had one of his katanas placed against the man's neck.

"Ya, obviously." Jiiku said, before pausing slightly. "Hey! Was that an insult?"

"Just ignore it Jiiku, lets just throw this guy out of here and go back to sleep." Razar said, who didn't even take the time to get out of his bed in the first place, he had simply thrown the sheets back and stopped once he saw the man was already caught.

"I agree with Razar." Akira said as he picked himself up off the floor after rolling out of bed because of the noise.

"Alright fine, but let me do something first." Tairaa said as he looked around the room and saw Yura. "Yura, come over here and actually make sure that he was sent by the nobles. I assume you can look through memories?"

"Of course." Yura walked forward and placed her hand on the man's forehead. "Now you should be worried, this will hurt, a lot!" Yura said as suddenly a purple glow covered her hand and the man's head shot back as if he was having a seizure.

Several seconds later the glow faded and the man seemed on the brink of passing out. "He obviously hasn't been an assassin for long, he didn't attempt to resist at all." Yura said as she looked down at the man.

"He's like that from not resisting, what happens when someone tries to resist?" Bearpaw said as he seemed concerned for the man.

"Well it depends on the person, sometimes their brain overloads and they…. I mean, you don't want to know." Yura said, trying not to scare the crew. "But you were right Kurisu, he was sent by the nobles, and he was paid quite handsomely."

"I could have told you that, it's why I was awake. Roje and Jeimuzu could hear the jingling of the coins from very far away, and they woke me up. He really is a new assassin." Tairaa said as he pet Roje and Jeimuzu, who had been lying beside his bed. "Anyway, Jiiku could you do the honours?" Tairaa said as he unfused the man from the floor.

"Certainly." Jiiku responded and before the assassin had time to recover from being whole again, was kicked incredibly hard in the back by Jiiku and sent flying out the window and through the night sky. A loud crashing noise was heard several seconds later.

"Good night everyone." Tairaa said as he quickly passed out again in his bed, everyone else quickly followed.

The rest of the night went without problem and the morning soon arrived. The crew had to prepare themselves for yet another battle.

The next few days were quite simple for the Wild Cat Pirates. Wake up in the morning, go to the arena, fight a group, win and go back to sleep. They quickly advanced through the first two battles with nothing but small scrapes and bruises, disposing of a weak pirate crew and a group of bounty hunters.

The semi final would prove to be one of the harder battles for the crew. They faced a group of martial artists from a nearby island. It was decided that it would be a group fight, but Tairaa and Jiiku insisted on fighting the whole battle by themselves, Tairaa even going as far as to not use Roje and Jeimuzu.

Their opponents attacked with many different styles, some only using their legs, others using different weapon related martial arts. But Tairaa and Jiiku managed to take all of them out until it was just them and the master of the group.

"Well, you two seem like quite competent martial artists, why have you gotten yourselves into the disgraceful act of piracy?" The man asked as he dropped into a fighting stance.

"That's personal." Tairaa and Jiiku both said as the also got into fighting stances.

They both charged forward and sped off in different directions. Tairaa attacked from the right and Jiiku attacked from the left. The master lifted his arms and blocked both attacks, quickly dropping down and spinning, attempting to trip both Tairaa and Jiiku. Tairaa managed to jump up in time to dodge the attack, but Jiiku was hit and started falling backwards. Jiiku launched his hands backwards and managed to do a back flip and get out of range of the master.

Now the master charged at Tairaa and the two began exchanging blows. The master threw a quick punch at Tairaa's chest, but Tairaa brought both his hands up and blocked the attack, instantly kicking his leg outwards and hitting the master in the chest, sending him sliding backwards.

Jiiku came from behind the master and quickly tripped him, but in mid-air the master shot his arm out and grabbed on to Jiiku, and managed to pull himself upright while slamming Jiiku into the ground.

The master quickly jumped up so he was over Tairaa, and started falling towards him. Tairaa punched at the same time the master did and their fists collided, sending out a small shockwave that sent the master flying back up in the air and Tairaa sliding backwards on the ground. Tairaa wasted no time in dashing forwards again and quickly jumping in the air after the master. He was happy to see Jiiku doing the same thing.

They surrounded the master in mid-air and attacked him from both sides; he was unable to block the attacks and was kicked twice by both Tairaa and Jiiku. The master fell back and slammed into the ground. A dust cloud forming around the impact zone.

The crew was surprised to see that when the dust cloud dissipated, that the master was still standing. And they were even more surprised when he turned to Tairaa and Jiiku and bowed, with Tairaa and Jiiku quickly doing the same.

The master spoke first. "I am glad to see you have taken care of my former pupil, and that he has grown so much." The master said while looking towards Tairaa, he than turned and looked towards the announcer. "I surrender; I will not be able to best these people in combat."

"Amazing!" The announcer quickly yelled. "The Wild Cat Pirates destroy a team that looked very promising from the beginning. This win also advances them to the finals to fight the winner of The Gold River Mercenary Group and The Four Blues Pirates.

The crew had two hours to catch up with Jiiku's old master before they had to sit down to watch the fight.

"So, has Jiiku always been this way?" Kurisu said as he motioned over to Jiiku, who was trying to balance a random pot he found in the hallway on his finger, with some of the attendants chasing him to get it back.

"Sadly, yes." The master responded. "But he has amazing potential; he is able to grasp almost any technique he is shown almost instantly. You are very lucky to have him on your crew."

"Certainly." Tairaa responded, "Just a question, but do you happen to know where he learned the Rokushiki techniques? He has been teaching them to me, but they are suppose to be very hard to acquire I thought."

"I thought I saw you doing a Rankyaku at one point." The master responded. "Well it was on a day where we had taken a trip to a island to find new opponents for Jiiku, as he was getting bored with the students at my dojo and had his father pay for the trip, so I tagged along to keep him safe."

"He got in trouble, didn't he?" Tairaa quickly interrupted.

"Of course, but this actually wasn't his fault." The master responded, seeing the shocked looks from the crew. "That day, a group called CP9 was apparently going to assassinate three people in the village that were in the restaurant we were in. One of the CP9 members that had a giant zipper on his mouth told their plans to the restaurant even though the other members tried to silence him. They proceeded to kill everyone in the restaurant, but as they charged at me, Jiiku managed to stop one of their attacks. They then recognized him and asked for forgiveness for attempting to attack him. He told them the only way he wouldn't tell his father and the marines would be if they taught him their techniques, and they reluctantly agreed. He uses them very little, so I'm actually surprised he still remembers them to teach to you."

"Jiiku surprises people all the time; I've pretty much just gotten use to it." Tairaa said as he began laughing. "Well it was nice meeting you; we must be going to see this match. Have a safe trip home." The two shook hands and parted ways.

The crew soon found some seats and waited for the match to start. Once again it was decided that the fight would be a group fight, but once again the mercenary group only sent out one fighter. The crew couldn't get a great look at him, asides from the fact he had long brown hair. He also carried a small round shield made of metal and a short sword.

The members of the opposing team began running forward at this man. He quickly took out the first one by hitting him in the face with his shield and knocking him unconscious. He blocked an incoming sword with his sword and than hit that man with his shield, also knocking him out.

The other team slightly backed off before charging forward again. The man proceeded to quickly dispatch all of the members, asides from someone who looked to be the captain. He carried two long swords, one in each hand. He charged forward and put a great amount of pressure on the mercenary. The mercenary was being forced back to everyone's amazement and was even hit several times, resulting in several cuts on his body.

The mercenary eventually regained his balance and pushed forward, causing the captain to step back slightly. This gave the mercenary the opportunity he needed, he quickly did an uppercut motion with his shield and arm sent the captain flying up into the air. He than jumped up after him and cut the captain twice across the chest, and when the captain was falling back down, he hit him in the back with the grip of his sword, finishing the battle.

The crowd cheered and the announcer went crazy yet again. The mercenary group raised their hands in victory and quickly pointed towards the Wild Cat Crew, slicing their throats with their fingers.

"That's quite the challenge." The announcer quickly yelled. "But unfortunately we are going to have to wait a couple days for the final match so that each team has the time to heal and train. We will see you all in 5 days." And with that, everyone began leaving the arena.

The Wild Cat Crew sat in the stands and instantly began planning out training schedules and rest time. The next five days were filled with many different types of training. Some days Tairaa and Jiiku would go over different martial arts techniques with the crew, other times Cora and Razar would go over ways to avoid sword attacks, and than they would have days where people would pick a sparring partner that they normally didn't fight to learn how to fight all kinds of weapons. No one complained and they all worked as hard as they could all day, every day, no one wanting to lose the upcoming match. Every member of the crew found it easy to work with everyone, including Jiiku, when they were focused on training.

It was the day of the match that the crew received an unexpected visitor. Upon leaving their inn, they were greeted by Damian.

"Well, looks like you guys are ready to fight." Damian said as he leaned against a pole in the street.

"Well look who it is, mister Arena Champion. Why the surprising visit?" Tairaa said as the crew stopped to listen to Damian.

"Look, I'm sorry I didn't tell you guys about me being the champion before, I needed you to enter the tournament and if I had told you that, you probably would have just not done it." Damian paused before continuing. "Here's what I propose. I am the champion of the arena, but not of my own free will."

"What do you mean?" Bearpaw said, as the crew looked at Damian, confused.

"Well just look at this." Damian said as he pulled down the collar of his shirt to give a view of his neck with what seemed to be some kind of metal ring like device on it. The device had many flashing lights and buttons.

"Oh my god, what is that?" Cora said, sounding horrified.

"It's an adaptation of the slave collar the World Nobles use. It allows me to roam free and doesn't explode luckily, but it can shock me whenever the owner wants and stops me from using my full power." Damian said, stopping for a brief second. "And the only time they take it off is during the fight where the champions of the team tournament face me. So here is my plan."

Tairaa interrupted before Damian had a chance to speak. "Before we hear your plan, I want to know how we can trust you."

"Easy," Damian said as he threw the injured body of a man at the crew. "Go ahead, Mind Mind girl, read his mind."

Yura stepped forward, already slightly alarmed that he knew the name of her fruit. Once again she placed her hand on the man's head, and a purple glow enveloped her hand. Once the glow faded Yura turned to face the crew. "This man was part of a group of assassins sent to kill us; they were going to ambush us as we came out of the inn. Damian intervened and defeated them all."

"Well how do we know he didn't plan it?" Kurisu said, still suspicious.

"Well from the memories I could tell this person had never met Damian before, so I think we can trust him." Yura said, as she walked back towards the crew.

"Alright than, let's hear your plan." Tairaa said, as the crew slightly calmed down.

"Ok, well this plan will only work if you guys beat the Gold River Mercenary Group and win the tournament." Damian started.

"No problem, we have this fight in the bag." Jiiku said, with amazing confidence.

"Well, after you win, you will be given a day of rest, than you will pick one member to fight me." Damian continued. "I suggest Tairaa does that, because once they take the collar off me, we can use your speed to get out of the arena before the majority of the guards can catch us. The hard part will be getting out of the harbour, because the marines will be chasing you for your bounties, as well as the fact that you beat the Blood Hounds."

"Well I think we can handle that, our ship is a lot faster and stronger than it looks, and it looks pretty good to begin with." Razar said with a big smile on his face.

"Well, after we escape, I would be honoured if you let me join your pirate crew." Damian said, bowing in front of Tairaa.

"Well, how could I say no, we would be glad to have you." Tairaa said, extending his arm.

"It's a deal than." Damian said as he shook Tairaa's hand.

"Well guys, lets go win these finals!" Tairaa said as he punched his fist up in the air.

The rest of the crew quickly did the same, yelling "YA!"

The stands at the arena were completely full, not a single seat was without a person. So many people wanted to see this fight that the organizers of the arena had to turn people away and set up another area with a screen so that people could watch the match from outside, for a good price of course.

When the crew walked out to the outer ring of the arena, people erupted in cheers, shortly followed by another burst of cheers when the Mercenaries walked out.

Once everyone had calmed down, the announcer came on over his Den-Den Mushi Megaphone. "Attention ladies and gentlemen. This is it, the moment you have all been waiting for, the final for the Group Tournament is here!" The crowd once again began cheering. "Now, introducing first, the group at the south end of the arena, THE WILD CAT PIRATES! Consisting of Captain 'Wild Cat' Tairaa, Jiiku, 'The One Man Arsenal' Razar, Akira 'Devil Eye' Kido, Cora, Yura, Sakie Felgray, 'Father Nature' Bearpaw Jones and Kurisu." The crowd began chanting and yelling certain names that were inaudible to the crew.

"Now introducing their opponents, THE GOLD RIVER MERCENARY GROUP! Consisting of leader, 'The Unstoppable Offense' Noboru, 'The Unhittable' Hideki, Makoto, Tsutomu, Big Jack, Koichi, Reiko, Fumi and Emiko." The announcer let the crowd begin yelling again before he started talking. "Now since both groups have nine members, we will be having a one on one match. So without further delay, teams, pick your first fighter!"

The man referred to as Big Jack was the first one to step out; now the crew could get a better look at him. He was almost 9 feet tall and bald; he had a leather jacket and several tattoos going down both of his arms. He carried a incredibly large sword, even bigger than he was. Kurisu quickly caught note of this. "Hey, no one uses big swords but me. This guy is mine."

"No way." Bearpaw quickly interrupted "This guy beat me at that strength test, and there is no way I'm letting him have that glory." Bearpaw quickly walked in to the main arena, determined to beat the man who had beaten him in the Douriki chart.

The announcer quickly shut the gates and started yelling yet again. "Well this is going to be an interesting first match indeed. "The One Man Arsenal" Razar and Big Jack, ranked number five and four on the Douriki charts respectively. Each has destroyed any opponents put in front of them, but how will they do against each other?"

With that Razar quickly took his shell off and threw it at Jack. Jack quickly raised his sword, yelling "That kind of attack won't work on me!" He swung his sword like a bat and hit Razar's shell in mid-flight, sending sparks flying in all directions and sent it flying back towards Razar. Razar managed to duck under his shell and catch it again without injuring himself.

"My turn!" Jack yelled as he began running forward, with his sword dragging on the ground behind him. When he got closer to Razar, he swung his sword horizontally aimed directly at Razar's stomach.

Razar had enough time to bring his shell up to block the sword, but the huge impact force caused a crack to form on Razar's shell. Razar quickly jumped back, avoiding the rest of the swing. "You bastard! Do you realize how long it is going to take to fix that!" Razar yelled with great anger in his voice. Razar split his shell in half and put each half on one fist, his Pulsing Shell Blades came out of the ends and he began swinging wildly at Jack.

Jack managed to block most of the attacks by bring his sword to a middle position and slightly varying the angle he was holding it at. Razar slammed both his swords into Jack's sword and kept them there while pushing back. Jack began to feel the vibrations of Razar's swords and jumped back.

"Damn, I guess you noticed?" Razar said as he put his swords at his sides.

"Any respectable swordsman would have realized that." Jack said, as he put both hands on his sword and got into a battle position. Jack charged forward and the two once again began exchanging blows, each one landing several small hits on the other. "Well, guess I better stop fooling around and finish this." Jack said as he raised his sword high over his head. He suddenly began swinging his sword at a pace that no one thought possible with a weapon that big.

The strength behind the swings also increased and Razar was knocked off balance and his swords moved to the side. Jack took advantage of this and slashed Razar twice across the chest, causing a huge amount of blood to flying in all directions.

"RAZAR!" Cora and the rest of the crew yelled as they pressed closer against the arena gate.

Razar fell to his knees, the blood dripping and staining the ground. He managed to put his shell on his back and put his hand on the floor in an attempt to stand back up.

"Not so fast." Jack yelled as he kicked Razar in the face and sent him flying in the air. Razar landed hard on his back and more blood burst forth from his wound.

Razar laid on the ground for a second as Jack walked towards him. He felt unconsciousness approaching and felt extremely disappointed. Suddenly he began to hear Cora's voice. "Razar, do not give up. There is no way you can lose here! Win for me, win for yourself, win for the crew!"

Cora's speech awoke the last remaining bits of energy in Razar and he began to move. But before he could get far, Jack was standing over him, pointing his sword at Razar's throat.

"Any last words." Jack said, as he began laughing.

"Just one." Razar began as Jack looked at him surprised. "Smokescreen!" Suddenly from several spots on Razar's shell, black smoke came shooting out and covered the small area of the arena where Razar and Jack were. When the smoke cleared, Razar was standing in front of Jack, breathing heavily and holding his shell in his hands.

"You still think you can beat me?" Jack yelled with a mocking tone. "You're all out of tricks."

"Not quite." Razar said as he held his shell in one hand like a shield. Suddenly the spikes on his shell all went to the edges of it and began spinning around the shell at extreme speeds. "Shell Buzz Saw!" Razar yelled as he charged forward as fast as he could.

His buzz saw collided with Jack's sword and sparks flew in massive numbers in all directions. The force was too much for Jack and his sword was sent flying off to the side, giving Razar a chance to push his buzz saw into Jack's chest, which caused a gigantic gash and sent blood spilling in all directions.

Just than Razar turned off the saw and all the spikes went back to their original spots on the shell, he than pushed the spike part of the shell against Jack's chest. "Shell Missiles!" Razar yelled as the missiles went off at point blank range and caused an immense explosion that enveloped both fighters.

Within moments, both fighters were sent flying in opposite directions by the explosion. Razar hit the wall beside the gate to his crew mates and managed to steady himself despite the immense amount of pain he was in.

Jack on the other hand, slammed into the wall beside his crew and was knocked unconscious by the impact.

The crowd went crazy and the announcer soon followed. "That's it ladies and gentlemen! We have a winner for the first fight! Give it up for "The One Man Arsenal" Razar from the Wild Cat Pirates!" The crowd burst into cheers and the gates opened, allowing Bearpaw and the crew a chance to help Razar.

"Razar! You idiot why did you use the explosives at that close range." Cora said, with tears in her eyes from seeing the amount of pain Razar was in.

Razar managed to talk very lightly. "Well I wanted to end the fight with a bang." Razar said, giving a slight chuckle before closing his eyes.

"Bearpaw, how is he?" Tairaa said as he watched with a concerned face as Bearpaw examine Razar's wounds.

"He's lost a lot of blood, but luckily I brought my medical supplies with me." Bearpaw said as he took out a case he had with him. Bearpaw quickly bandaged and put different kinds of ointments on Razar when the arena medical team showed up.

The put Razar on a stretcher and began taking him away, when suddenly a sword was against one of their throats. The man turned to see Cora holding her sword out.

"If anything happens to him, you guys will pay ten fold." Cora said as she lowered her sword and allowed them to take Razar to the medical bay.

"Cora, if you want to follow him you can take the next fight and go after you win." Tairaa said, seeing the concern in her eyes.

"Thanks Tairaa, I think I'll take you up on that." Cora responded as she began walking out into the arena.

Tairaa grabbed her shoulder before she got all the way out. "Don't let your anger control your attacks, the last thing we need is for you to be seriously injured as well."

Cora nodded and continued walking out into the arena. Once she had gotten out the gate closed behind her, she looked across to see who the mercenaries would send out. After several seconds, a man walked out into the ring. It was the man who had defeated the pirate crew in the semi-finals just days earlier.

Now Cora could get a better look at him and his weapon. He stood just over 6 feet tall and had long brown hair that went just past his elbows. His sword appeared to be of average length and was a double edged blade, his shield was just big enough to cover his chest if held properly. Cora unsheathed her sword and got into a battle position.

The man was the first one to speak. "I really didn't want to fight you, but my team says that I'd probably be the best match for you. My name is Tsutomu, and who would you be?"

Cora seemed angered that this man was taking the time to talk to her, but she responded none-the-less. "I am Cora; now let's get this fight started." Cora said as she began running forward at Tsutomu.

Tsutomu brought his shield up in anticipation. "I couldn't agree more." Just before Cora got close to him, she vanished in a blur of motion. Suddenly Tsutomu turned to his right and blocked Cora's sword with his shield and than pushed and threw her back. "Ah, a speed type. How interesting." Tsutomu said as he now began running forward.

Tsutomu did an overhead swing at Cora, who brought her sword up to block the attack just above her head. She quickly than slipped under Tsutomu's sword and elbowed him in the chest, sending him sliding backwards several feet.

Tsutomu charged forward yet again and the two clashed for several seconds, with neither one being able to land any hits. Cora swung hard at the same time Tsutomu did, and their swords slammed together in between them, and than they both jumped back several feet.

Cora pointed her arm straight at Tsutomu. "Dancing Sword Style: Rapid Snake Arm Slice!" Cora yelled as she began moving her arm up and down at an incredible speed and causing five blades of air to be sent flying towards Tsutomu, who managed to block the first two, but the third knocked his arms holding his sword and shield to the side and he was hit by the last two, causing two long but shallow cuts on Tsutomu's chest.

"Well, you have managed to hit me, and that's more than most people can say who have fought me. But play time ends here!" Tsutomu yelled as he charged forward, sword held by the opposite hip than the hand that was holding it.

When he got closer to Cora, Tsutomu did a upwards diagonal slash with a tremendous amount of power behind it. Cora attempted to block but the forced knocked her sword arm out of the way and Tsutomu took this chance to hit her chest with his shield and send her flying backwards. Tsutomu quickly dashed forward in pursuit and stabbed at Cora's chest.

Cora managed to dodge to the side at the last second, but the sword still hit the top of her left arm, causing it to go limp. Luckily for Cora it was not her sword arm.

"Ha, how good are you going to be with only one arm!" Tsutomu yelled as he began laughing.

"I don't know, how about you ask that!" Cora said as she pointed towards his right leg with her sword.

Tsutomu looked down to see that he had a gash on his leg right above his ankle. Cora had sliced him while diving to the side and getting hit by his sword. "Well, I guess I underestimated you. But you won't be alive for much longer for me to make that mistake again." Tsutomu yelled as he once again charged forward.

Cora looked as if she wasn't going to dodge, but at the last second she disappeared in a blur again, and before Tsutomu realized what had happened, Cora was behind him and slashed his back. She disappeared again as Tsutomu turned around and this time appeared beside him and slashed his arm that was holding his shield, causing him to drop it.

Cora than jumped back and saw the look of anger on Tsutomu's face. "You aimed for the wrong spot idiot!" Cora said as he readied her sword again. "Or did you already forget that it was you who called me a 'speed type'? It doesn't matter if I don't have one arm, as long as I still have my legs you won't be able to hit me."

"That can easily be fixed." Tsutomu said as he readied his sword, but for the first time, didn't dash forward. "Now let's see if you can hit me again?" He said as he tempted Cora.

"I'll take that bet." Cora said as she once again disappeared from view.

Suddenly Tsutomu spun to the side and sliced right as Cora appeared from thin air, hitting her leg and causing Cora to jump back.

"You are way too predicable." Tsutomu said as he wiped the blood from his sword.

Cora looked at the injury to her leg and realized she wouldn't be able to move fast for much longer. _I'll have to end this quick._ She thought as she studied her opponent. _Well, I might as well try it. _Cora readied her sword and yelled out "Dancing Sword Style: Graceful Ballet!" As she moved incredibly fast around her opponent and than appeared behind him, but as she passed him, several clashes of metal were heard, despite it looking like Tsutomu had not moved at all.

"Did you really think that would work on me? Don't think you are the only one who can move parts of their body at high speeds. I've seen those kinds of attacks so often that I've learned how to block them." Tsutomu said as they turned around to face each other yet again.

"Well I was hoping, but I guess I still need to weaken you!" Cora yelled as she ran forward. The two once again began clashing, each managing to land small cuts on the other because of the weakened state of both fighters. After several seconds, the two once again jumped apart, breathing heavily and dripping with blood.

"Well, I hope this still works with one hurt leg." Cora said quietly as she began lifting her legs slightly off the ground and slamming them into the floor in rapid succession.

"What are you trying to do, dig a hole with your feet that they can bury you in?" Tsutomu said as he laughed.

"Dancing Sword Style: Quickstep Launch!" Cora yelled as her feet pick up an even greater pace, she suddenly hit both of them against the ground right after each other and shot herself forward at a speed so fast not even Tairaa could see her. She was moving so fast that Tsutomu didn't have time to dodge or block before Cora was right in front of him. While still moving at an amazing speed, she grabbed onto Tsutomu with both hands and yelled "Dancing Sword Style: Partner Toss!" She than used all her remaining energy from the speed boost to throw Tsutomu up in the air and spin him around at a speed that made him unable to see anything and incredibly dizzy.

Cora than jumped in the air after him and swung her sword as hard as she could and as fast as she could, blood spraying in all directions from the multiple cuts emerging on Tsutomu.

When Tsutomu hit the ground he was unconscious from loss of blood and everyone knew it. "That's it, the fight is over!" The announcer began yelling almost instantly after Tsutomu had hit the ground. "An amazing display of speed and power from Cora of the Wild Cat Pirates! That makes two wins for the Wild Cat Pirates and none for the Gold River Mercenary Group! Can they recover from these first two fights. Lets find out, teams pick your next fighter!"

Cora walked out of the arena and was greeted quite well by the Wild Cat Crew. "That speed was amazing!" Tairaa said as Cora got Bearpaw to look at her wounds. "How did you do that!"

"Easy," Cora began. 'I watched you and Jiiku when you were doing that Soru move. Jiiku was saying that you do it by kicking the ground at least ten times in a spilt second. I cant move my legs as fast as you guys go instantly, it takes of bit of building up, but once I do build up my leg speed I can hit the ground around 15 times in a spilt second, so I move much faster."

"I should have figured." Tairaa said as he patted Cora on the back. "Now go see Razar."

"Thanks Tairaa and good luck guys." Cora said before walking out of the ring towards the medical bay.

Akira walked out into the ring, not even waiting for the crew to decide. The earth cracking as he walked, showing his anticipation. The gate closed behind him, and that is when the rest of the crew noticed he had walked out.

"Man, he seems really ramped up, I haven't seen him like this in a while." Tairaa said as the crew watched chunks of the earth float up in the air and circle around Akira. The chunks began to spin at an increasing speed until they finally stopped and fell to the ground.

"One of you get out here! I'm ready!" Akira yelled as the crowd began cheering.

One of the mercenary members walked out, he stood just under 6 feet tall, and looked very slim. He had shoulder length purple hair that was tied back in a pony tail. He carried two tonfas, one in each hand. As soon as the gate closed behind him he wasted no time in charging forward at Akira

Akira pulled up and rock wall but the man came charging, he punched out and hit the rock wall dead in the center, and to everyone's amazement, it shattered.

"Well, I'm guessing you are just below that other guy on the Douriki chart?" Akira said while jumping back after his wall was broken.

"Good guess. My Douriki is 1045, just short of being in the top 5. And I guess I will tell you the name of the man who is going to kill you. I am Makoto, and I am praised for my ability with these tonfas." Makoto said as he spun the tonfas around in a stunning display.

"Well, I am Akira Kido, user of the Tsu Tsu no Mi and the one who will be winning here today." Akira said, as he smiled.

"We'll see about that!" Makoto yelled as he charged forward.

"Tsu Tsu Staff!" Akira yelled as he slammed his foot into the floor, a long solid piece of earth shot out and Akira caught it in mid-air. Akira than brought it in front of him to block the tonfas.

Once the tips of the tonfas had hit the staff, Akira pushed up and caused Makoto's hands to be thrown in the air. During this time Akira spun the staff around in a circle, holding it by the end, slamming it into Makoto's stomach, sending him flying to the side.

"Well, you are not as unskilled as I thought." Makoto said as he wiped away a little bit of blood that had come out of his mouth.

"And this isn't even my strong suit." Akira said as he spun around the staff.

"Well than I better use all of my power to end this quickly." Makoto said as he readied himself and ran forward again. He swung both his tonfas in an overhead swing.

"Didn't you learn that wont work?" Akira said as he raised his staff to block.

At the last second Makoto let go of the handles of his tonfas and grabbed them at the tip of the long part, spinning them around so the handles were facing down. He used the handles to hook onto Akira's staff and pull it away from him, at the same time kicking Akira in the chest and sending him flying backwards.

Akira collided with the arena wall and spat out blood as he hit the floor. Akira was very quick in recovering and suddenly slammed his fist into the earth, a huge boulder came out and Akira punched it with all his strength. "Tsu Tsu Gatling!" He yelled as the boulder exploded into pieces and flew towards Makoto.

Makoto began spinning his tonfas while lightly holding onto the grip. He managed to block almost all of the rocks that were sent flying at him, some small ones got through but didn't leave much damage.

"Is that all you've got? Little pebbles!" Makoto yelled as he taunted Akira.

"Not even close1" Akira yelled back as he put both his hands on the ground. Suddenly earth began gathering around Akira's fists until the formed giant stone hands on top of Akira's regular hands. "Tsu Tsu Gauntlets!" Akira yelled as he began charging forward.

Akira ran at full speed and punched forward towards Makoto. Makoto attempted to block the punch with his tonfas but was unsuccessful and was hit directly in the chest. He was sent sliding backwards for several seconds before managing to balance himself.

Akira charged forward yet again and attempted another punch. At the last second, Makoto side stepped and managed to get out of the way of the punch but also grab Akira's wrist where there was no stone. Makoto wasted no time in using the tonfa in his other hand to hook Akira's neck to swing and throw him to the ground, still holding onto his arm. While Akira was stuck on the ground with his arm being held and his neck being hooked, Makoto lifted his leg and slammed it into Akira's stomach, causing Akira to cough up blood.

Makoto attempted to kick Akira again, but just as Makoto raised his leg, Akira yelled "Tsu Tsu Dome!" And hit the ground with his other hand, suddenly a large dome of earth began forming around Akira, and Makoto let go of Akira's arm and neck. When the dome had finished Akira quickly yelled "Tsu Tsu Gauntlet Launch!" and suddenly the gauntlets that were on Akira's fists came shooting out of the dome and hit Makoto in the face, sending him flying backwards and opening up small cuts on his face.

When Makoto looked back towards the dome, he saw it begin to go underground, it reappeared farther away from Makoto in an upright position, and when it dissolved, Akira was standing in the arena.

"That's a good trick." Makoto said as he readied his tonfas again.

"And I've got plenty more where that came from." Akira said as he once again hit his hands on the ground. "Tsu Tsu Crush!" Akira yelled as two giant boulders flew out of the ground, one on each side of Makoto. They flew towards him at a high rate of speed, but Makoto managed to jump in the air and avoid the boulders just as they slammed into each other, shattering upon impact.

As soon as Makoto landed he charged forward at Akira, who had no time to prepare himself and was unable to block when Makoto thrust both his tonfas forward and hit Akira in the stomach with the short end of both tonfas. As Akira knelled over in pain, Makoto quickly spun both tonfas and hit Akira on the top of his head, sending him falling towards the ground. As Akira was falling, Makoto kneed Akira in the face and sent him flying backwards into the arena wall.

"Had enough yet?" Makoto said as he watched Akira attempt the stand up.

"Yes. But that doesn't mean I'm giving up. I've just had enough of your annoying voice." Akira yelled as he managed to get up. He than slammed both his fists into the floor and the same time he slammed his feet into the floor. A giant wall of stone emerged from the ground in front of Akira. Who proceeded to punch the wall with both hands as hard as he could. "Tsu Tsu Pillar Gatling!" Akira yelled as suddenly multiple pillars of earth began shooting out of the wall and heading towards Makoto.

Makoto was unable to move out of the way and was hit by many of the pillars that sent him flying back and slamming into the arena wall. Akira was not done and started punching the stone wall as fast as he could and as hard as he could, causing more pillars to shoot out, slamming into Makoto while he was on the wall.

After a couple seconds Akira stopped and the wall of earth fell down, the pillars crumbled and Akira himself fell to his knees, completely out of energy. Everyone looked over and Makoto had been knocked unconscious by the repeated hits from the pillars. Akira raised his hand in victory.

"And that's it! Another victory for the Wild Cat Pirates! Is there nothing that can stop these people when they enter the arena?" The announcer yelled as the crowd burst into another round of cheers. "Well it looks like the Wild Cat Pirates are just itching for another fight; their next member is already walking out onto the field."

Kurisu had walked out onto the arena floor, he was slowly walking towards Akira. Once he reach Akira, who was still kneeling on the floor, he extended his hand. Akira reached up and grabbed Kurisu's hand and Kurisu helped him to his feet.

"Good job kid, I didn't think you had it in you." Kurisu said as Akira began walking back to the crew.

"Well just see if you can deliver a better performance than that!" Akira said with a smile on his face, finally reaching the crew.

"Great job Akira." Tairaa and everyone else said as Akira sat down with his back to the wall as he let Bearpaw look at his injuries.

"You don't want to go to the medical bay?" Sakie said as she watched Akira wince in pain as Bearpaw felt different parts of his stomach.

"I trust Bearpaw way more than any of those 'so called' doctors they have in this medical bay." Akira said, before arching his head back in pain when Bearpaw began applying herbs and bandages to the area that had been hit by kicks and tonfas.

"Thanks" Was all Bearpaw said before he continued his treatment.

Meanwhile Kurisu's opponent had come out of the other gate. It was one of the women of the mercenaries. She stood just shorter than Kurisu and had long black hair. She was wearing a skin tight outfit that covered her whole body except for her head. On her arms she had what appeared to be two swords that had been attached to her sleeve just before her wrist.

"Well that is an interesting way to hold your swords I guess." Kurisu said as he motioned towards the sword on each arm.

"Well whenever you talk to an experienced swordsman or weapons expert, they all say to think of the weapon as an extension of your arm, and I have taken that to the highest level. Now these swords are actually an extension of my arms." The woman responded.

"Well, may I know the name of the one who believes to know so much about swords?" Kurisu said as he took on of his large swords off his back.

"Certainly, I am Emiko. And who might you be?" Emiko said, as she readied her swords.

"I am Kurisu, and I think we should start this fight now." Kurisu said as he also readied his sword.

"I couldn't agree more." Emiko said as she dashed forward. She tried a double overhead swing but Kurisu brought up his sword and blocked both attacks, and than quickly jumped back.

"Crimson Wave!" Kurisu yelled as he swung his sword at high speed. A large red blade of air shot forward towards Emiko, who managed to bring both swords up in an x pattern to block the attack.

"Well it looks like you don't take it easy at all." Emiko said as she dashed forward again.

"Why would I take it easy if I want to win?" Kurisu said as he also dashed forward. Both of them swung their swords at the same time and clashed in the middle, a shockwave pushing both of them back slightly. They each attempted several more swings with neither one managing to get the upper hand.

"How can you be blocking my attacks with a weapon that over-sized!" Emiko yelled with anger in her voice.

"Easy, I have trained with swords since the age of 3 with a family that is obsessed with weapons martial arts. But I was only ever good with swords, and so I was declared the 'Sword Prodigy' of my family and was only taught sword techniques for the next 15 years before I left my family." Kurisu said as spun his sword around several times.

"Well, than beating you in a sword fight would be the highest of honours." Emiko said as she once again dashed forward. She swung her right sword and Kurisu blocked it, but when Emiko swung her left sword, he knew he would be unable to block it and jumped back.

But he did not react fast enough and Emiko's left blade grazed his stomach, leaving a small cut that bled slightly. "Impressive, being able to cut me is quite the accomplishment." Kurisu said as he looked down at the cut. "But its obvious to me now that I wont be able to beat your two swords with just my one. Be happy, this is the first time I have used both my swords against a single person." Kurisu than began to pull out his second large sword.

But Emiko gave him very little time and dashed forward. Swinging both of her swords at the arm that was drawing out his sword, but Kurisu managed to speed up his arm and pull out his sword to block the attack.

Kurisu than kicked Emiko in the stomach and sent her up into the air, and he quickly jumped up after her. When he got above her he swung both of his swords at the same time yelling "Double Crimson Wave!" As two large red blades of air shot out and headed towards Emiko. Emiko managed to bring her swords up to block the air blades, but was sent flying towards the ground from the impact.

She slammed into the ground travelling incredibly fast, causing a crater where she hit the ground. Kurisu landed in front of the crater and looked down into it and was surprised to see Emiko standing up.

"Damn, you are one resilient person." Kurisu said as he readied his swords yet again.

"And I'm just getting started!" Emiko yelled as she suddenly disappeared in a blur, appearing a few seconds later behind Kurisu.

Kurisu turned around in shock. "When do you get so fa…?" Was all Kurisu could say before 5 separate cuts burst open on his body. Blood sprayed many directions.

"I was going easy on you at the beginning to see how strong you really were. Obviously I over estimated your power." Emiko said as she turned around to face Kurisu, who still had a look of shock on his face. 'Is it that surprising that I cut you, Mr. Prodigy?"

"Frankly it is, not very many people have the kind of speed you do, but don't think that because you hit me once that you can do it again." Kurisu said as he readied his swords and charged forward. Kurisu swung one of his swords in an overhead swing, which Emiko had to use both of her swords to block.

While still pushing hard with the one sword, Kurisu stabbed his other sword at Emiko's stomach. To his surprise, right before the blade was about to hit her, she jumped in the air and managed to bend her legs enough that the sword went right past her. Once she was in the air, Emiko kicked Kurisu in the head and sent him flying into the arena wall.

Kurisu recovered quickly and began running forward at Emiko. "This ends now!" He yelled as he jumped up in the air.

"You think you can end this with one attack?" Emiko said as she laughed slightly.

"Of course!" Kurisu yelled as he thrust his sword downwards at Emiko, who quickly jumped back just enough to avoid the attack and Kurisu's sword got stuck in the ground.

"That was it!" Emiko said, once again laughing.

"Not even close!" Kurisu yelled as he pulled his sword out at an angle and sent dirt and rocks flying in the air at Emiko, who quickly covered her eyes with her arms. _NOW! _Kurisu thought as he saw the opening he had been hoping for. "Large Sword Style: Blood Star!" Kurisu yelled as he suddenly disappeared in a burst of speed. Reappearing several times within a very short time frame. (If you could have watched where he appeared each time and the direction he ran in, it would have formed a star)

Kurisu finally reappeared and stopped moving back where he had started. Emiko seemed motionless, until ten large gashes opened on her body and blood sprayed in every direction. Kurisu turned around, expecting to see Emiko on the floor, but to his surprise, she was moving forward, albeit very slowly, towards him.

"This… *cough*… won't stop… me…" Emiko managed to say as she slowly walked towards Kurisu. She tried to swing her sword, but Kurisu easily ducked under it and elbowed her in the stomach, causing more blood to spill from the wounds. Kurisu than hit Emiko in the face with the grip of his sword, finally knocking her unconscious.

"You have to realize when to admit defeat." Kurisu said as he looked on in shame at Emiko, who lay motionless on the floor.

"He's done it, Kurisu of the Wild Cat Pirates has made it four straight wins in a row for the Wild Cat Pirates!" The announcer yelled as the crowd began chanting 'Wild Cat'. "Can they hold out for another five fights and make this a clean sweep of the finals? We will soon find out."

Kurisu walked back to the crew and got Bearpaw, who had just finished with Akira, to start bandaging the cuts on his body. Kurisu looked straight at Tairaa and said "If any of you guys lose to these idiots I'm leaving the crew." Kurisu slightly smiled after saying this.

"Don't worry, just sit there and watch us." Tairaa said as he looked at the crowd, cheering for more fights. "This will be over before you know it."

* * *

**Well there you go, hope you guys liked it and the next chapter will feature the next five fights, so look forward to that.**

**Once again, please review, I like peiple telling me how I can fix things.**


	15. The Arena Finals Part 2

**Hey guys, I'm back yet again. The reason this chapter took so long is that I started my first year of university so I was in a bit of a rush with assignments and mid-terms and all that. But now I am used to it slighty so I managed to get some writing done.**

**I hope if I write at the same pace that I am now that I can finish the next chapter in about 2 weeks, before my exams start, but if it isnt up by around December 3rd or so, don't expect it up until sometime around or after Christmas.**

**Well anyway, here you go:**

**A New Pirate Crew Emerges - Chapter 15: The Arena Finals Part 2**

* * *

The crowd was still cheering, barely anyone still sitting in their seats. This just got the crew more hyped up and excited for the next fight.

"I wish to fight next." Came Bearpaw's voice from behind the crew. He had just finished bandaging up Kurisu and was walking towards the gate.

"But we are going to need you, especially for the harder fights." Jiiku said as he tried to stop Bearpaw.

"No Jiiku let him go. If he fights now, it will give him time to fix himself before we have to fight and probably get seriously injured. If he fought right before us, he would be in too much pain to help us at all." Tairaa said as he allowed Bearpaw to walk out onto the arena.

"Thanks Captain." Bearpaw said as he walked into the center of the ring. "Spirits give me strength." He said quietly as he watched his opponent walk out onto the arena as well.

She stood at about 5 and a half feet tall, had shoulder length green hair. She had a long sleeve shirt and pants on, and Bearpaw could see what looked like a metal gauntlet on her right hand. She didn't appear to have any other weapons on her.

"So, a hand-to-hand fighter, that's always interesting." Bearpaw said as he readied himself, listening to the cheers from the crowd.

"We'll see how interesting it is when I defeat you!" The woman yelled. "Now I guess we should get the formalities out of the way, I am Fumi."

"I couldn't agree more," Bearpaw responded. "I am Bearpaw Jones. Now let's get this started!" Bearpaw yelled as he raised his arm in front of his body. "Spirit of Water: Jet Stream!" and suddenly a jet of water shot forth from Bearpaw's hand, hitting Fumi in the face.

Once the water had subsided, Fumi wiped it off her face and began to open her eyes. "What was that suppose to do, annoy me?" Fumi said as she looked towards where Bearpaw used to be standing, but he wasn't there anymore.

"No! To allow me to get this close!" Came Bearpaw's voice.

Fumi looked down to see Bearpaw was right in front of her. Bearpaw did an uppercut and hit Fumi right on her chin, sending her flying into the air.

Bearpaw heard a strange noise and looked up in the air to see Fumi's gauntlet was being launched towards him, except he could still see her arm attached to it. It appeared that her arm was stretching. Before Bearpaw could react, the gauntlet grabbed his shoulder and began retracting, pulling Bearpaw up into the air.

Once Bearpaw was close to Fumi she punched with her other arm and hit Bearpaw in the stomach, sending him flying back towards the ground. Upon impact dust was sent flying in all directions.

When the dust settled, Bearpaw was standing in the middle of a small crater, dusting himself off.

Fumi landed and her arm appeared to be normal again.

"What a strange ability?" Bearpaw said as he readied himself for another attack. "Care to explain what's going on here?"

"Certainly, you might as well know what's going to kill you." Fumi said as she rolled up her sleeve, revealing an arm made completely of metal. "When I was young I lost my arm in an accident, my family was quite wealthy so I knew they could do something about it. But because of this 'imperfection' my family banished me, but not before I stole a bunch of their money and used it to pay a brilliant scientist to create this arm for me."

"Well, the advances of technology sure are amazing. But its nothing compared to the human spirit!" Bearpaw said as he charged forward.

The two exchanged several blows before Bearpaw managed to slip under one of Fumi's punches and trip her, while she was falling he quickly shoulder checked her and sent her flying backwards, but she managed to balance herself in mid-air and slide backwards on her feet.

Fumi suddenly dashed forward and shot her arm out towards Bearpaw, who quickly jumped to the side just in time to avoid the initial strike, but Fumi retracted her arm and launched it towards Bearpaw yet again.

This continued for several shots before Bearpaw was able to grab her arm as it flew past him and he proceeded to pull Fumi towards him yelling "Spirit of Fire: Breath" as he inhaled and launched a cone of fire from his mouth.

Just before it would have hit her, Fumi leaned her body back and barely avoided the fire, seeing it only inches from her face. She was quick to react and managed to kick up at Bearpaw's face,

Bearpaw suddenly yelled "Spirit Launch!" and a flash of white light enveloped both fighters.

When Fumi managed to open her eyes, she couldn't see Bearpaw and she knew she hadn't hit him with her kick. She readied herself for an attack. After a couple seconds, she looked around and saw a mouse running around on the floor.

Fumi began laughing "Turned into a mouse so you could run away huh?" Fumi said as she raised her foot over the mouse. "Well I don't care how I win!" She yelled as she began lowering her foot as fast as she could, but at the last second the mouse leaped to the side and avoided the shoe. The mouse then jumped towards Fumi and a flash of light covered both fighters yet again.

When the light cleared, Bearpaw was standing in front of Fumi and had punched her in the stomach. Fumi was bent over around Bearpaw's fist in pain, but she suddenly began laughing.

"Bearpaw get out of there!" Tairaa yelled as he heard the laugh.

Bearpaw tried to jump back but Fumi used her regular arm to grab the back of Bearpaw's head and pull him towards her and launched her arm forward and it went straight through Bearpaw's stomach area.

"BEARPAW!" The whole crew yelled in shock as they saw Fumi's hand come out of his back, blood pouring everywhere.

Fumi removed her hand and Bearpaw stumbled back, barely standing and barely conscious.

"Looks like this may be over folks, this might put and end to the Wild Cat Pirate's winning streak." The announcer said before he suddenly starting talking again. "But wait, what is Bearpaw Jones doing?"

Everyone looked at Bearpaw and saw he appeared to be trying something.

"Never…thought…*cough*…I would have to…use…*cough*…this on myself" Bearpaw said as he took a breath in. Suddenly a small cone of fire erupted from Bearpaw's mouth and he aimed it towards the wound, slowly the bleeding died down until it almost stopped completely.

"So cauterizing your own wound? Interesting." Fumi said as she stood and watched Bearpaw.

Bearpaw then kneeled down and put his hand on the ground. "Spirit of Earth: Rejuvenate." A green aura slowly encircled Bearpaw's hand, and slowly made its way to his stomach. Slowly the burned skin and scar tissue around the wound began to fade. The green aura faded but the wound was not completely healed.

Fumi looked on in amazement. "How did you do that?" She asked with confusion and anger in her voice.

"It is through Mother Earth we are formed, so it is through Mother Earth we are healed. And also… its because I'm Native." Bearpaw said, causing the crew to sigh, but they were relieved that he was ok.

Barely giving Bearpaw time to regain his composure, Fumi launched her arm forward and grabbed Bearpaw's leg and began pulling him towards her. When Bearpaw was close Fumi lifted her leg and dropped it onto Bearpaw's stomach, causing him to yell out in pain.

Despite the pain, Bearpaw wasted no time in hitting his hand on the floor. "Spirit of Earth: Entangle!" He yelled as roots shot out from the ground and wrapped around Fumi. Bearpaw used this time to get up and place his palm right in front of Fumi's chest.

"Spirit of Fire, Spirit of Air: Fire Tornado!" Bearpaw yelled as he began shooting his Tornado Palm from his hand and his Fire Breath at the same time. The two combined and Fumi was hit by a swirling funnel of fire. The roots let go and she was sent flying back into the arena wall, but continued to resist and attempted to break free of the winds and heat.

"Well I guess you won't just give up!" Bearpaw yelled as the Fire Tornado began to die down, but Bearpaw suddenly hit the ground again and roots shot out from the wall of the arena and held Fumi to the wall.

Bearpaw slowly walked towards her cracking his knuckles. "I hate to do this to a woman but you left me no choice, do you realize how long this wound is going to take to heal?" Bearpaw said as he stood in front of Fumi.

Bearpaw punched his right arm and left arm at the same time, his right aiming at Fumi's head and his left aiming at her stomach. When the fists collided, Fumi was slightly embedded into the wall and passed out. Bearpaw walked away and raised his hands in victory.

"That's it, another win for the Wild Cat Pirates. What an amazing come back from "Father Nature" Bearpaw Jones!" The announcer yelled as the crowd broke into applause.

Bearpaw slowly walked back to the crew, holding his stomach.

"Bearpaw, are you okay? Can you do that healing ability again?" Tairaa asked as he brought Bearpaw his kit and starting opening it.

"No, I can only do that once in a while, it takes a lot of energy to do and it's actually meant to heal someone else, so it's not as effective on me." Bearpaw said as he started taking things from his kit. "Don't worry; I'm well enough to still help you guys if you get hurt."

"This is boring! I hate waiting. I'm taking my turn now." Sakie yelled as she began walking towards the gate. She turned around before completely stepping out into the arena. "Wish me luck."

"I would if you need it." Tairaa said as he smiled. "Now let's hurry up and get another win."

"Will do captain." Sakie said as she walked into the arena.

"Jiiku you've been surprisingly quiet. I thought you would be the most excited about this." Tairaa said as he looked over at Jiiku, who had a serious look on his face and appeared to be focused on someone in the crowd, although Tairaa couldn't tell who.

Jiiku suddenly snapped back into reality. "Well of course I'm excited, but I just hate waiting for my turn." Jiiku responded almost sounding caught off guard.

"Care to enlighten us at to what you were staring at?" Kurisu said, still leaning against the arena wall.

"Nothing," Jiiku responded quickly "I thought I saw someone I knew but I was mistaken."

"Whatever. Oh, Sakie's opponent is coming out." Tairaa said as the crew looked back towards the arena.

Sakie was standing in the middle of the arena holding her glaive. Her opponent was almost six and a half feet tall with black hair held in two pigtails. She carried a spear that was about as long Sakie's glaive.

"How interesting" The woman said, "another female pole arm user."

"I'm not just another pole arm user. I'm Sakie Felgray and I'm the one who will be leaving her victorious." Sakie said as she readied her glaive.

"We'll see about that!" The woman yelled as she dashed forward and thrust her spear at Sakie's head.

Sakie moved her head to the side just enough to dodge the spear and quickly closed the distance between herself and her opponent, who had a look of shock on her face.

Sakie was too close to hit with the blade of her glaive, but managed to swing the glaive the other way and hit the woman in the face with the other end. Sakie quickly kicked the woman in the stomach after the hit and sent her back a bit.

"Decent technique, but nothing compared to me!" The woman yelled as she readied to attack again.

"And would you mind telling me who you may be?" Sakie said a she pointed the glaive at the woman.

"I might as well; I am Koichi, a spear expert." Koichi said and the suddenly dashed forward again.

Koichi brought her spear over her head and swung down at Sakie who managed to block the spear tip with the blade on her glaive.

Sakie quickly used her strong wrists to deflect the spear to the side, but as she was about to attack Koichi, Koichi let go of her spear with one hand and punched Sakie in the face, sending her sliding backwards.

Sakie wasted no time in steadying herself and charging forward. When Sakie got close, Koichi swung her spear horizontally at Sakie's head.

Sakie quickly dropped down and slid on her knees under the blade yelling "Power Slide Slice!" Sakie sliced her glaive in an upward diagonal motion.

Koichi managed to jump back to dodge the blade itself, but was caught off guard by the blade of air that followed and was hit in the chest, causing a cut and sending her flying back several feet.

When Sakie stood up she could see the look of anger on Koichi's face. Koichi charged forward, screaming in rage.

"Let's see you dodge this!" Koichi yelled as she started thrusting her spear at incredible speeds, making it appear as if there were multiple spears stabbing outwards.

"Certainly." Sakie said before she started to move her glaive at great speeds as well. "Shredding Solo!" Sakie disappeared in a blur of motion, appearing a couple seconds later behind Koichi, who had stopped thrusting her spear.

"You are quite skilled, otherwise I might have ended the fight right there." Sakie said as she saw multiple cuts on her arms.

"Same to you." Koichi said as cuts also appeared on her arms.

The two women turned around and began exchanging more blows, the sound of clashing metal and wood echoed throughout the arena.

Koichi attempted an upper cut swing with her spear. Sakie easily brought the handle of her glaive up in time to block it, but at the last second, instead of hitting with the cutting part of the spear, Koichi turned it and hit the staff with the flat part of the spear head. Using as much force as she could muster, Koichi threw Sakie up in the air and jumped up after her.

Koichi kicked Sakie's glaive out of her hand in mid-air and Sakie saw her glaive go flying behind her. With no time to dodge, Sakie was quickly cut across the chest, but not deep enough as to cause major damage. Koichi then kicked Sakie in the stomach and sent her flying back and slamming into the ground beside her glaive.

Sakie reached over and grabbed her glaive and used it to help her stand up. "Damn, you just won't give me an opening will you?" Sakie said as she readied her glaive yet again.

"Nope, but you aren't giving up are you?" Koichi said, also getting ready.

"Not a chance." Sakie said before charging forward.

"Then this is the end!" Koichi yelled as lifted the spear over her head and swung it with as much force as she could.

Sakie managed to block the spear at the last second but had to drop down onto one knee to do so. "Resonate Block!" Sakie yelled as she suddenly began vibrating her glaive at amazing speeds.

Suddenly the tip of Koichi's spear cracked and then the entire spear head shattered. Koichi quickly jumped back, now only holding a staff. "How?" She yelled in anger.

"Every object has a resonate frequency, and if it is vibrated at that frequency it has a great likelihood of breaking. As a musician and a fighter, I have become very accustom to finding that frequency if the fight goes on too long." Sakie said as she quickly lowered the grip on her glaive so that both of her hands were only holding the very bottom of the grip.

Sakie spun her glaive in a large downward diagonal circle towards Koichi, who didn't have time to dodge and tried to bring the remainder of her spear up to block the attack, but the glaive easily sliced through the wood and caused a huge gash on Koichi.

Blood flew out from the wound and Koichi dropped to her knees. "How…so much power…*cough*…from a change in stance?" Was all Koichi could managed to say.

"Well if an object is spinning in a circle, the point that is farthest away from the center moves the fastest. So by holding my glaive at the bottom, I can get the blade to go much faster with the same amount of force I normally swing with." Sakie said as she watched Koichi's eyes slowly begin to close.

"Damn…it." Koichi managed to say before falling face down and passing out.

"Well I'm glad that's over with." Sakie said as she walked back to the crew and sat down beside Kurisu so Bearpaw could look at her wounds.

"Nice fight." Kurisu said as he turned towards Sakie.

"I try." Sakie said as she smiled and put her glaive against the wall.

"I guess it's my turn." Yura said as she walked out of the gate.

Yura's opponent soon walked out as well. It was a woman with very short black hair. She had straps going all over her body that held a multitude of pistols. She was basically the same height as Yura.

"By process of elimination, you must be Reiko?" Yura said as she scanned the pistols all over the woman's body.

"Indeed, so you must be Yura?" Reiko responded, while reaching for two pistols by her waist.

"A shot to the foot to immobilize me and then a shot to the head to end it, nice plan but it won't work." Yura said as she held out her hand.

"Ah, the Mind Mind Fruit, an interesting power indeed." Reiko said as she looked like she was moving her hands away from her pistols. "But let's see it in action!" She yelled as she quickly grabbed her pistols and fired both of them.

The bullets suddenly began to glow purple and stopped before getting even close to Yura.

"To be honest, about two weeks ago that might have got me. But Tairaa realized I had trouble with stopping fast moving or multiple objects. So he helped me practice and that wont work on me anymore" Yura said as she dropped the bullets.

"Well that was only two." Reiko said as put the two pistols back on her waist and reached for some of the ones on the straps going around her body. "How about 25!" She said as in quickly succession she pulled pistols out, fired them, put them back and grabbed another pistol. Suddenly a wave of bullets was flying towards Yura.

"Nice try, Mind Pulse!" Yura yelled as she raised her hand up and launched a wave of purple energy towards Reiko, which deflected all the bullets and made Reiko have to jump to the side.

"Very nice. But I know your weakness now!" Reiko said as she fired a couple more shots.

Yura easily stopped them but was unprepared when Reiko suddenly dashed forward and was right in front of her.

"You can't move while doing this." Reiko said as she kicked Yura in the side, causing her to go rolling sideways, stopping after several feet.

Yura recovered and stood up, and made a gun with her hand and pointed at Reiko. "Mind Gun!" She yelled as small bursts of purple energy began shooting out from her fingertip towards Reiko.

Reiko managed to jump to the side and avoid most of the shots but was hit in the arm but several of them, leaving small marks.

"That's the best you can do?" Reiko said as she began laughing. "This is going to be so easy."

"Well I actually just made that attack up on the spot, now that I've got a handle for it, let's try it again." Yura said as she now aimed both hands in front of herself. "Double Mind Gun!" The blasts this time seemed much faster and stronger, and it was proven when two of them slammed into Reiko's stomach and she bent over in pain and proceeded to get hit by about 20 more, launching her back and slamming her into the arena wall.

When Yura stopped firing and stood up, she saw Reiko was still standing, although breathing quite heavily. "Ok, enough of the small stuff lets see how you deal with this!" Reiko yelled as she reached behind her and pulled a weapon that almost looked like a hand-held cannon.

Reiko fired the small cannon once; a ball about half the size of a cannonball came flying out. Yura jumped to the side at the last second but when the ball hit the ground it exploded, sending Yura flying off to the side and rolling across the ground.

Yura came to just in time to see Reiko fire another shot. Yura instantly stuck out her hand and tried to stop the ball, which was harder because of the increased size. The ball finally came to stop just feet from Yura.

"Bad idea." Reiko said as she drew one of her pistols and fired at the ball.

"Shi…" Was all Yura could say before the ball exploded, sending her flying backwards and slamming into the arena wall, making her cough up blood.

Yura was on her knees and looked up to see Reiko slowly approaching her with the cannon ready for another shot. "I only have two shots left with this. But that's more then enough to finish off you." Reiko said as she aimed straight at Yura and prepared to fire.

Just as Reiko aimed, Yura drew a knife out from her belt and tossed it as fast as she could just as Reiko was about to pull the trigger. The knife just fit inside the barrel as Reiko pulled the trigger. The round inside the cannon exploded, causing the additional round to also go off, causing a huge explosion that sent a huge shockwave across the arena.

People covered their faces as the gust of wind charged pass them, and people could see Reiko get sent flying backwards by the explosion with an incredible speed, slamming into the opposite wall from Yura.

Yura and Reiko both managed to get up, despite the severity of their injuries.

"I guess we are doing this the old fashion way." Reiko said as she drew a knife from one of the straps on her body.

"That's fine by me." Yura said as she took out two steak knifes from her belt.

The two charged towards each other and the knives clashed, followed by several more slashes and the sound of clashing metal echoing throughout the arena. Small cuts were beginning to appear on both fighters as the battle progressed.

Eventually Reiko managed to catch Yura off guard and kick her in the stomach and send her flying backwards several feet.

Yura was breathing heavily and knew she didn't have much more energy left. "This better work." She said as she slowly stood up.

"What, a dramatic last stand, don't kid yourself you can't do anything to me in your state." Reiko said as she began laughing.

"Well might as well try anyway." Yura said as she suddenly stomped on the ground and aimed her hand towards Reiko's feet. "Mind Pillar!" She yelled as a burst of purple energy went off under Reiko and sent her flying up into the air, and knocked the wind out of her.

Yura quickly jumped up into the air and pointed her hands behind her. "Mind Pulse!" She yelled as one mind pulse shot from each hand, slamming into the wall behind her but pushing her forward at an unbelievable speed.

Yura reached Reiko in a spilt second and grabbed her face. Yura aimed Reiko straight towards the ground and yelled "Mind Pulse!" yet again as a point blank mind pulse went off, sending Reiko flying towards the ground at such a speed that when she hit the ground almost the entire inner circle of the arena was covered with dust.

The dust slowly faded and everyone knew what they were going to see before they saw it. Yura was standing in front of a large crater with an unconscious Reiko in it.

"That's it!" The announcer yelled as he had for the past matches. "The 'Wild Cat Pirates' have done it again!" The crowd erupted into more cheers and Yura slowly made her way back to the crew.

Bearpaw immediately began treating her wounds. "I guess I owe you guys a good meal for me being the most injured one here" Yura said, almost on the verge of passing out.

"What are you talking about, look how much damage you did, you don't owe us anything. Although a nice meal after this would be nice." Tairaa said as he slightly chuckled.

"I guess that just leaves me and you Tairaa." Jiiku said as he cracked his knuckles in anticipation.

"Well we get to fight in a crater because of Yura here." Tairaa said as Yura smiled a little.

"I can fix that." Akira said as he pounded the ground with his fist, suddenly the arena began to shake slightly and all of the various craters formed by all the battles filled themselves in.

"What an amazing Devil's Fruit!" The announcer said as he saw all the earth restore itself.

"Man, we're already down to only two fights?" Came a voice from behind the crew. The crew turned around to see Razar walking towards them, slightly supported by Cora.

"You guys are back." Tairaa said as he helped Razar sit down beside Kurisu and Sakie. "How are you feeling?"

"I'll be fine, fishmen are more resilient then you might think." Razar said as he examined the bandages covering his body. Just then the gates to the arena slid open again.

"Well I guess that's my queue." Jiiku said as he walked out into the arena, seeing his opponent also walk out.

Before Jiiku even bothered to look at his opponent, he looked into the crowd and than raised his hand and flipped someone off in the crowd.

Upon seeing this, Tairaa quickly fused with Roje to get his tiger eyes, and was amazed at what he saw. Tairaa unfused and turned towards the crew, "Jiiku's father is in the crowd." Tairaa said with a hint of fear in his voice.

"WHAT!" The whole crew yelled, everyone with the same voice of concern.

"Man, it took you and Jiiku to fuse together just to stop him last time, if he attacks after the finals we are all screwed." Cora said as everyone was thinking the same thing.

"Well we'll just have to deal with it when it comes." Tairaa said, still not feeling confident.

Back in the arena Jiiku took a better look at his opponent. He stood about six feet tall and had long black hair that went down to his waist. "Well if it isn't Commodore Jiiku." The man said in almost a happy tone. "How fortunate that I get to test my powers against the child prodigy of the marines."

"Well you seem to know a lot about me, but I know nothing of you." Jiiku said as he continued to examine the other fighter for weapons of any kind.

"My name is Hideki; the title given to me by my bounty is "The Unhittable" Hideki, because in every fight I've ever had I have never once been hit by an opponent." Hideki said as he slightly laughed.

"Well there's a first time for everything." Jiiku said as he reached into pocket and pulled out a scroll. "But before the fight starts," Jiiku quickly turned around to face his crew and threw the scroll above his head. "Tairaa!"

"Ya, I know!" Tairaa said as he snapped his fingers and a blue light began glowing around the scroll. Suddenly an entire weapons rack fell out from the scroll and landed beside Jiiku.

The weapon rack contained a multitude of different weapons, from swords, to spears, to maces and much more.

"Thanks for making all those for him Kurisu; he would just not shut up about wanting his own weapon thing." Tairaa said as he looked towards Kurisu.

"No problem, I couldn't stand any more of his whining either." Kurisu said as he examined his work from a distance.

Jiiku wasted no time in reaching in to the rack and without warning threw an object towards Hideki.

Hideki ducked under the attack like it was moving in slow motion. "I am a master of reading body movement to determine where your attacks and going and with how much power, there is no way you can hit me by throwing something at me." Hideki said as he laughed.

"Improve Fighting Style: Come Back Boomerang!" Jiiku yelled as he reached out his hand.

"What?" Was all Hideki could say before a boomerang (the thing Jiiku threw) slammed into the back of his head and he fell face first onto the ground.

Jiiku caught the boomerang and put it back in the rack. "Told you." Jiiku said with his classic smile on his face.

"You bastard! I'll kill you!" Hideki yelled as he suddenly disappeared in a blur of motion.

Jiiku prepared himself for an attack but did not know where Hideki had gone. Suddenly Jiiku was sent flying sideways by a kick to the side of his stomach. He rolled several feet before bouncing back up and steadying himself.

This time Jiiku charged forward and threw a punch at Hideki, who lowered himself to the side ever so slightly so that the punch went just over his shoulder. He then proceeded to grab Jiiku's arm and throw him straight up in the air. He jumped after Jiiku and punched towards his stomach but Jiiku caught the punch with both hand and began spinning while holding onto Hideki's hand. Jiiku tossed him towards the ground but Hideki managed to balance himself in mid air and land on his feet.

No sooner had he landed then he jumped back up over Jiiku and tried to kick at Jiiku's stomach. Jiiku spun and kicked as well. The two kicks collided and both men were sent flying in opposite directions.

Both of them adjusted themselves in mid air and landed on separate arena walls and at the same time pushed off towards each other. Both of them punched and the fists collided in the middle of the arena, a small shockwave was omitted and both fighters were sent flying backwards and slammed into the arena wall.

Jiiku stood up and seemed perfectly fine, but Hideki looked slightly injured. He was holding his back and slightly rubbing it. That is when Jiiku realized something.

"I know the reason you specialized in dodging and evading attacks." Jiiku said as he pointed towards Hideki. "You have no pain tolerance. I mean if any of the other people here had got hit by that boomerang, they might have said 'ouch', but they wouldn't have been knocked down by it. And look at you now, that wasn't even that hard of an impact and you look like you just got hit by a train." Jiiku turned towards the crew who were all looking at him with disbelief. "What, I have my moments."

"Not very many." Kurisu said as the crew laughed.

"But you might want to pay attention." Tairaa said as he pointed back to the arena.

Jiiku turned his head just in time to get punched in the face by Hideki and get sent flying back into the arena wall yet again. Hideki punched at Jiiku as he was on the wall but at the last second Jiiku disappeared and Hideki jumped back, only to jump straight into Jiiku and get picked up over Jiiku's head and get slammed into the ground behind him.

Jiiku lifted his foot to stomp on Hideki but he disappeared yet again and Jiiku took this time to run back to his weapon rack. Just as he was about to get there, Hideki appeared in front of him and did a sweeping leg kick, but Jiiku easily jumped over it and tried to kick Hideki in the face.

Hideki rolled to the side and avoided the kick, but that gave Jiiku enough time to grab a weapon off the rack.

Hideki turned to see Jiiku holding a staff. Jiiku charged forward and jabbed the staff at Hideki, who dodged slightly to the side, but grabbed the staff and jammed the end of it into the ground and used it like a pole vaulting stick to launch Jiiku up into the air.

Hideki looked up to see Jiiku flying through the air doing front flips and acrobatic manoeuvres until he landed on his feet and put his hands in the air like someone does at the end of a gymnastic performance. "Ta-da!" He yelled as he looked around. "Oh right, fighting." He said as he charged back towards Hideki, who Jiiku could tell was getting very annoyed.

As soon as Jiiku got close to Hideki and tried to punch him, Hideki went as low as he could on the ground and shot his leg up, hitting Jiiku in the chin. (Imagine how Rock Lee starts off his Primary Lotus (if you watched Naruto)) Jiiku flew up into the air and was disoriented for a moment. But that was all the time Hideki needed.

Hideki jumped up after Jiiku and grabbed both his feet. He spun and tossed Jiiku as hard as he could towards the ground. Jiiku slammed into the ground and before he had time to get up Hideki was falling down above him with his fist pulled back.

Hideki punched at Jiiku's stomach right as he reached Jiiku and the ground of the arena once again cracked into a small crater from the impact. Hideki had a smile on his face, thinking he had ended the fight, but when he looked down he saw that Jiiku had actually managed to catch his punch with both hands at the last second and divert a lot of the damage from his stomach.

"Man, for a guy who specializes in reading attacks, your attacks sure are easy to read." Jiiku said as he pushed Hideki up into the air and used that time to jump out of the crater and stand up, Hideki landed soon after.

Jiiku slowly approached Hideki very slowly, but when he got several feet from his randomly lifted on leg in the air and loosely stretched both his arms out to the side. "Improve Fighting Style: Drunken Crane Stance!" He yelled as he wobbled back and forth on his one leg.

Hideki looked on in confusion as Jiiku appeared to actually look drunk. Hideki saw Jiiku's leg start to move up and anticipated a kick, so he brought both hands down to stop it, but just as he did that Jiiku shot out his arm and punched Hideki in the face.

Hideki grabbed his face in pain and as he did that, Jiiku kicked him in the stomach and sent him flying backwards.

Hideki stood up and appeared greatly angered. "Alright, no more fooling around!" He yelled before he disappeared in a blur again. He appeared under Jiiku and upper-cut him into the air before disappearing again. He reappeared in mid air and kicked Jiiku off to the side, yet again disappearing.

This process continued with Jiiku being knocked around and Hideki disappearing after each shot until when appeared to punch Jiiku yet again, Jiiku's arm shot out and grabbed Hideki. "Now that was fun and all, but how about you let me have a turn?" Jiiku said as he kicked out and hit Hideki towards the crowd.

Jiiku disappeared this time and reappeared on top of the wall where Hideki was headed. Jiiku turned and winked to some girls before turning back around and punching Hideki into the floor of the arena.

Hideki stood up slowly, showing great pain, and looked at Jiiku, who seemed to have absolutely no injuries at all. "How! How are you not hurt!" Hideki yelled in anger.

"It's because of that man up there." Jiiku said as he pointed towards where his father was sitting. "As soon as he found out I was declared a genius in combat, around age 5, he started arranging yearly 'Birthday Challenges' for me. At age 6 I had to fight a group of lions, at age 8 I had to dodge bullets fired at me by a marine squadron, at age 10, after becoming a Commodore, I had to survive 5 minutes against a giant." Jiiku said as everyone looked on in shock. "Plus during the times I wasn't doing any of that, he was fighting me to make me stronger, nothing you can do can compare to the power of that man."

"You're lying; no one can survive that much punishment at a low age! STOP MOCKING ME!" Hideki yelled as he charged forward yet again. He kicked Jiiku in the side of his stomach and Jiiku was sent flying into a wall.

Jiiku got up and saw that Hideki was going through his weapon rack. Hideki was randomly picking up weapons and throwing them at Jiiku. Jiiku easily dodge the first few but then Hideki began picking up speed and threw almost 5 weapons a second.

As Jiiku was dodging a mace aimed at his head, he was hit by a sword that went through his left hand. Jiiku gasped in pain but wasted no time in ripping the sword out of his hand, causing blood to spill all over the ground.

Jiiku looked up and saw Hideki had run out of weapons, except for a bow and a quiver of arrows that he now had on. Hideki began shooting arrows at Jiiku, who effortlessly dodged them.

"I told you I dodged bullets before; arrows won't do a whole lot to me." Jiiku said as he suddenly turned to the side and grabbed one of the arrows as it passed by him. He spun around quickly and tossed the arrow back at Hideki who did not expect this and ducked slightly, causing the arrow to hit the quiver and not it off his back.

In the spilt second that Hideki turned around to look at the falling quiver, Jiiku dashed and got right in front of him, screaming as he uppercut Hideki has hard as he could, sending him so far into the air so fast that some people lost track of him.

With equal force, Jiiku jumped up after him. Tairaa had good enough eyes to see that Jiiku had caught up and grabbed Hideki and was now spinning at an incredible speed before yelling "Improve Fighting Style: Wiping Out The Dinosaurs!" as he tossed Hideki as hard as he could towards the ground. Hideki was moving so fast, he almost looked like a meteor to the point where he had small flames around him from the air friction.

Tairaa turned towards Akira as fast as he could. "Akira put a rock wall around us now!" Tairaa commanded.

"But wh…" Akira tried to say but he was interrupted by Tairaa.

"JUST DO IT!" Tairaa screamed and with that Akira put up a wall around the crew just before Hideki hit the ground.

When Hideki hit the ground the explosion was immense, dust flew in all directions to the extent that people outside the arena could see it. People inside the arena attempted to cover their eyes and faces from the flying debris. It took almost 10 seconds for the dust to clear, and then everyone saw the gigantic crater left over by the impact. It took up almost the entire arena and Hideki was lying in the middle of it, obviously unconscious from the impact.

After 2 or 3 seconds people began to hear someone screaming. They looked up to see Jiiku falling from the sky, attempting to flap his arms like they were wings. "I didn't think this far ahead!" He screamed as he slammed into the ground, creating another smaller crater, but almost instantly jumping to his feet.

"I think he took more damage from that fall then the fight." Tairaa said as he laughed, expecting as much from Jiiku.

"WHAT A SPECTACULAR FINISH!" The announcer yelled as medical crews ran out as quick as they could to attend to Hideki.

"Don't worry, he should be alive." Jiiku said towards the medical crew who were putting him on a stretcher. "He may not be able to move for a couple weeks, but he's alive."

Jiiku walked up the slope of the crater towards the crew as the gates opened; once again Akira had to restore the ground so the next fight could go on. "You guys really need to stop making craters, like I'm already not tired enough." Akira said as he started to breathe heavily.

"Sorry, but this is the last fight, so you wont have to do it again." Tairaa said as he prepared for his fight.

As Jiiku walked into where the crew were, he gave Tairaa a quick high five and said "These guys are a piece of cake."

"Well of course he was, you don't have to fight the guy with a Douriki of 3150. And we haven't even seen this guy fight, he could have a Devil's Fruit for all I know, and what if…" Tairaa was cut off by Jiiku slapping him in the face.

"Get a hold of yourself; you've never acted like this before a fight before." Jiiku said as he saw Tairaa begin to calm down.

"You're right, what was I thinking?" Tairaa said as he regained his composure. "Thanks Jiiku." Tairaa said as he, Roje and Jeimuzu walked out into the arena.

Tairaa watched as his opponent walked out as well. The man had spiky blond hair that went almost 2 feet into the air. He was about 6 and a quarter feet tall and seemed to be quite fit.

Tairaa wasted no time in fusing with Roje and Jeimuzu to get his legs as well as well as his arms. Tairaa kicked as fast as he could, "Tiger Rankyaku!" He yelled as the blade of air shot towards Noboru, who quickly punched the Rankyaku when it got close to him and it dissipated upon contact with his fist.

Tairaa looked in shock but quickly snapped back to reality. "I'm assuming I wouldn't be wrong to assume there is a Devil's Fruit in play here?" Tairaa said as he motioned towards Noboru's fist.

"Indeed you are correct, I have eaten the Pulse Pulse Fruit, which allows me omit pulses of energy from my body." Noboru said as cracked his knuckles.

"Well I guess that means you can even omit them while blocking, giving you the name 'The Unstoppable Offense'?" Tairaa questioned.

"You would be quite right, now can we skip the pleasantries and start the fight?" Noboru said, not even waiting for a response before dashing forward and punching at Tairaa.

Tairaa caught the punch but instantly regretted his decision when a pulse of energy from Noboru's hand sent him flying backwards and slammed him into the arena wall.

Tairaa recovered and stared at his opponent. _I'm going to have to approach this cautiously; there must be a weakness to this fruit. _Tairaa thought as he waited for Noboru to attack first.

Noboru charged forward and once again punched at Tairaa, who shifted to the side to dodge the punch but was hit by a pulse of energy anyway and sent rolling along the ground.

"A pulse omitted from your arm in a specific direction, wasn't expecting that." Tairaa said as he realized what had happened.

"You are a quick learner." Noboru said as he watched Tairaa get up. "Most people only figure out what you have by the end of the fight.

"Well I guess I have to show you what I can do then!" Tairaa yelled as he dashed forward at incredible speeds, catching Noboru slightly off guard. Tairaa attempted to punch Noboru but was hit by a large pulse shot from Noboru's whole body.

While flying backwards through the air Tairaa managed to shoot a Tiger Rankyaku at Noboru, and was surprised to see him jump out of the way to avoid it. _That's it! _Tairaa thought as he balanced himself in mid-air and landed with his feet on the arena wall.

Instantly Tairaa pushed off the wall as hard as he could and shot towards Noboru yet again. Noboru punched out towards Tairaa and fired a pulse, but at the last second Tairaa disappeared in a blur of motion, appearing a second later beside Noboru, who turned his head to see Tairaa but was unable to dodge and was kicked in the face, sending him flying backwards, bouncing across the arena floor before finally coming to a stop close to the arena wall.

Noboru stood up and dusted himself off. "I guess you figured it out huh?" Noboru said as he looked towards Tairaa, who was almost ready to attack again.

"Ya, there is a 2 or 3 second delay between when you fire one pulse and when you can fire the next. So I guess my speed is going to be a deciding factor in this fight?" Tairaa said as he got down to dash again.

"Indeed it is, but now that it happened once, it won't happen again." Noboru yelled as he dashed forward before Tairaa could.

Noboru got close to Tairaa and kicked out his leg. Tairaa moved to the side and jumped forward just enough to avoid the pulse that followed. Tairaa then tried to punch Noboru, but he caught Tairaa's arm and threw Tairaa above him, punching straight up afterwards and hitting Tairaa in the stomach, leaving him gasping for air and flying up at great speeds.

As he was falling back down, Tairaa managed to regain his balance and dodged an incoming pulse from Noboru. Tairaa landed several feet from Noboru and instantly jumped forward and tried to do a sweeping leg kick at Noboru.

Noboru jumped over Tairaa's kick, but just as Tairaa's leg passed under his feet, he fired a pulse from the bottom of his feet that slammed into Tairaa's leg, causing him to cry out in pain as his felt his leg get slammed against the ground. Noboru quickly then kicked Tairaa in the face, unable to fire another pulse at that moment, sending Tairaa sliding backwards and again slamming him into the arena wall.

"Can't you see now that it's useless to try and fight me?" Noboru yelled as he began laughing. "That one hit is all you are going to get on me."

"I'll never know unless I try." Tairaa yelled as he dashed forward again. Before he got to Noboru he disappeared yet again. Suddenly Noboru saw Tairaa to his right and fired a pulse, but when it made contact the image of Tairaa faded, like made of air.

"That's quite impressive speed you have there." Noboru said as he looked around, now seeing three Tairaas around him, all seeming to be like holograms.

"So which one will you hit next? Make a wrong choice and you get hit." Tairaa said, but Noboru couldn't pinpoint his voice.

"I don't have to choose." Noboru said as he pulled both arms close to him and then separated them, causing a shockwave pulse to be fired in all directions. Two of the Tairaas disappeared like the first, but one became solid and was sent flying backwards yet again.

Tairaa stood up, taking slightly deeper breaths. "What's this, tired already?" Noboru said as he mocked Tairaa.

"Maybe just a little, but that won't stop me." Tairaa said as he started kicking his legs in rapid succession. "Tiger Rankyaku Barrage!" Tairaa yelled as multiple Rankyakus shot towards Noboru, who started to run to the side, knowing he couldn't stop them all.

Tairaa started to aim lower and lower, almost hitting Noboru's legs several times, Noboru jumped slightly in the air to avoid getting hit. Tairaa took this time to hit several Rankyakus into the ground under Noboru, causing dust to fly up. Noboru covered his eyes from the dust and that was all the time Tairaa needed to dash forward and grab Noboru's leg and throw him as hard as he could into the arena wall.

Noboru screamed in rage as he stood back up and fire a large pulse towards, who had to move incredibly quickly to the side to dodge it in time.

Noboru fired another pulse and Tairaa jumped in the air to avoid it. "Geppou!" Tairaa yelled as he kicked off the air and shot towards Noboru and punched him into the arena wall.

Noboru instantly shot his arms out and grabbed Tairaa, spinning him around and slamming him into the wall while pulling himself off it. Noboru yelled in anger as he fired a giant pulse straight into Tairaa at point blank range, causing Tairaa to almost become embedded in the wall. Tairaa coughed up blood and his eyes rolled back in his head from the pain he felt.

Noboru jumped back and watched Tairaa fall off the wall, landing on his hands and knees before coughing up a little more blood. "This is the mighty 'Wild Cat' Tairaa, on his hands and knees coughing up blood." Noboru said as he began laughing.

Tairaa stood up and placed both hands on his legs, trying to catch his breath. "I'm sorry Roje and Jeimuzu, but you're going to have to put up with my selfishness for just a little longer." Tairaa said as he looked up towards Noboru. "Fusion: Legs – 20 Percent!" Tairaa yelled as there was suddenly a burst of pressure in the air and Tairaa's legs appeared to get more muscled.

"Damn it Tairaa! You said you wouldn't use that!" Jiiku yelled as he saw what Tairaa had done.

"Why? What is he doing?" Cora asked as she looked towards Tairaa.

"Well Tairaa told me that when he normally fuses with Roje and Jeimuzu, he actually only takes about ten percent of their power." Jiiku started before looking back towards Tairaa. "He can increase that amount and gain more power and speed, but at the cost of increased damage to his body."

"Wait, so when you and Tairaa fused together, that was only ten percent of your total power?" Bearpaw said in shock, "That almost destroyed your bodies."

"Actually, Tairaa said that was about five percent because people are harder to fuse together. He said that if we went anywhere above seventy five percent, we could probably fight on par with Marine Vice Admirals, but we would likely both die after the fusion ended just from the damage to our bodies." Jiiku said as he continued to look on at Tairaa, who had a look of pain in his face. "He better end this quick or he won't be ending this at all." Jiiku said as the rest of the crew looked on with concern in their faces.

Tairaa had a gain amount of pain in his eyes, but wasted no time in getting into the race starting position he used very frequently.

"A little push off the ground wont give you an advantage," Noboru began to say. "Don't make me la…" But Noboru was unable to finish his sentence went Tairaa disappeared so fast that only dust was left. Before Noboru had time to react, Tairaa had punched him in the stomach and kicked him in the ribs, sending him flying back and slamming him into the arena wall with such force that the wall cracked just from the impact.

Noboru fell off the wall and stood up, wiping a little bit of blood from his lip. "That's quite impressive, but that kind of increase in power can't come without some kind of price." Noboru said as he examined Tairaa. "And my guess is you are in severe pain right now."

"Well that may be true, so I just have to end this quickly!' Tairaa yelled as he dashed forward towards Noboru, still at an amazing speed. Noboru fired a pulse but Tairaa easily dashed to the side in a blur to dodge it.

Tairaa appeared beside Noboru and uppercut him into the air. Tairaa was quick to follow and grabbed him in mid air and tossed him towards the ground before he could fire a pulse.

Just before Noboru hit the ground he fired a pulse behind him, slowing him down and slightly reducing the impact, but before he had time to recover Tairaa fell over him and punched him in the stomach.

Noboru grabbed Tairaa's face after being hit and fired another point blank pulse, sending Tairaa flying up into the air and causing more blood to spill in every direction. Tairaa landed with a thud on the ground slightly in front of Noboru, who was still slightly laughing.

"Even with that boost you can't beat me, just give up already!" He yelled as he saw Tairaa slowly rising to his feet.

Noboru rushed forward and punched at Tairaa, who barely had time to dodge the punch as well as the pulse by jumping to the side. Noboru instantly shot out his elbow and hit Tairaa in the face, then turned and grabbed the back of Tairaa's head and pulled him towards his knees while shooting his knee forward.

When Tairaa's head made contact with Noboru's knee, Noboru fired another pulse that sent Tairaa shooting into the air and making him cough up more blood. Noboru jumped after him and punched him in the stomach while shooting a pulse that launched Tairaa towards the floor, making a large crater.

"TAIRAA!" The crew yelled as they saw their captain slam into the ground and dust fly everywhere.

Surprisingly to everyone, when the dust cleared, Tairaa was standing in the middle, although seeming in great amounts of pain.

"I guess I have no other choice." Tairaa said as he put his arms by his side and began shacking. "Full Body Fusion: FORTY PERCENT!" Tairaa yelled as there was a blast of air so intense that people in the audience had to hold onto their hats and cover their faces.

"Tairaa you idiot!" Jiiku yelled as he punched the cage bars. "You told me what happened last time you did this!"

"What happened?" The crew asked as they now looked towards Tairaa, who was breathing incredibly heavily, yet looked stronger then ever.

"Well do you remember the story about how he got his bounty?" Jiiku said as he looked towards the crew, who all nodded, "He caused all that damage when he attempted his first full body fusion at about thirty percent, so I have no idea what will happen now." Jiiku said as he looked on with fear in his eyes.

Noboru also had a hint of fear in his eyes as he looked at Tairaa, who now had yellow cat like eyes and a much stronger looking physique.

Without a word Tairaa burst forward at a speed that even Jiiku couldn't keep track of, and in a spilt second Tairaa had already landed five punches on Noboru and sent him flying back before he even realized what happened.

Noboru was now coughing up large amounts of blood and was trying to stand back up. He saw Tairaa several feet in front of him and put both his hands together and fired as a large and as strong of pulse as he could manage.

Tairaa punched out towards the wall of energy and hit it with his fist, after several seconds of struggling; Tairaa screamed and shattered the wall with pure physical power. Before Noboru had time to fire another, Tairaa dashed forward and did a spinning back kick that sent Noboru flying so fast he got slammed almost 1 foot into the arena wall.

Noboru coughed up more blood and was on the verge of passing out. He looked up to see Tairaa approaching him with his claws out.

The rest of the crew saw this and began yelling at Tairaa. "Tairaa don't do it, remember who you are (yes I know it's a cheesy line, leave me alone)." They yelled as Tairaa got even closer to Noboru.

Suddenly some of the yelling got through to Tairaa and he saw images of his crew and friends flash before his eyes. Suddenly his tiger eyes disappeared but his physique still remained. "Thanks guys." Tairaa said as he looked towards the crew, before turning back to Noboru.

"YOU'RE A MONSTER!" Noboru yelled with all the strength he could muster.

"No." Tairaa quickly responded. "I AM 'WILD CAT' TAIRAA AND I'M GOING TO BE KING OF THE PIRATES!" He yelled as punched Noboru with all his strength, sending him straight through the arena wall (which was 6 feet of solid stone).

Tairaa quickly unfused from Roje and Jeimuzu, seeing them both quickly collapse from exhaustion on the ground.

"That's it ladies and gentlemen; the Wild Cat Pirates have done it!" The announcer yelled as the crowd went absolutely ballistic.

"You're damn right we did." Tairaa said before falling back on the ground and passing out.

* * *

**Well there you guys go, I hope you liked it, as it took me forever to come up with 5 seperate fights and make them all interesting, but I hope I succeded. **

**As always please review, I'm looking for ways to improve my writing or description or whatever you think I need to improve on.**

**Also, periodically throughout the next 2 weeks while I'm writing chapter 16, I will be re-writing chapters 2 through about 6 to try and improve them, because they are not as good as I would like them to be, so look forward to that as well.**


	16. Amazing News All Around

**Well, I kept my promise and here is the new chapter on Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it and Happy Holidays to those who don't.**

**I realize this is a very short chapter, I will make the next one much longer to make up for it, and it will have what I hope will be my best battle yet, so look forward to that, well here you go**

**A New Pirate Crew Emerges - Chapter 16: Amazing News All Around**

* * *

Tairaa barely had any energy and couldn't stand up but was conscious as his crew ran over to him, the announcer still continuing to yell.

"With that victory the 'Wild Cat Pirates' have swept the board with the Gold River Mercenaries. They will get one day to rest before one of them gets to fight Damian for a giant cash prize." The announcer yelled as Akira and Cora lifted Tairaa to his feet and allowed him to support himself on their shoulders.

The crew was beginning to walk out of the arena when suddenly Damian's voice came from behind them. "Where do you think you're going?" Damian questioned before sticking out his hand. "I have to congratulate you on an impressive win."

Tairaa barely managed to reach his hand out to shake Damian's, but once he did they both nodded in an 'I understand' fashion.

It was hard for the crew to get Tairaa back to the inn with many people swarming the streets trying to get autographs or pictures, which Jiiku was more than happy to give to the women who asked him.

Eventually the crew made it back to the inn and Razar and Bearpaw made sure no one followed them inside.

The crew got to the room and Tairaa sat on his bed and leaned against the wall. He made sure the windows were closed before opening his hand and showing the crew a folded up sheet of paper. "Damian gave this to me when we shook hands." Tairaa said as he handed the paper to Akira, who unfolded it and began to read it out loud.

_Very well done Wild Cat Pirates, I knew I was right when I asked you guys for help. Unfortunately it doesn't look like Tairaa will be in a condition to fight me tomorrow, so Jiiku will have to take his place. But there is one major problem we will have to overcome, the collar around my neck will only be deactivated during the fight but not taken off, so we will have to find a way to get it off me or I will never be able to leave and join you guys. Make sure some of you are at the ship ready to depart because I hear the marines are bringing a huge number of ships to try and stop you._

_-Damian_

_P.S Burn this note after reading it._

Akira threw the note over to Bearpaw, who used his fire breath to burn the not before sitting back down.

"Well now we have to decide what to do." Tairaa said as he thought over Damian's words in his head. "Well obviously Razar should wait at the ship, and I guess Cora and Sakie can go with you to help get things ready faster."

"That sounds good to me." Razar said as Cora and Sakie nodded as well.

"Now getting that collar off of Damian is the real problem." Tairaa said as he tapped his chin. "Yura could you mind trick one of the guards to…" Tairaa was about to finish but was cut off by Jiiku.

"Leave that to me, I have a few tricks up my sleeve." Jiiku said as he laughed slightly.

"All right, as long as it won't injure him." Tairaa said. "Now about the actual escape tomorrow…"

The crew continued talking for many hours before finally going to sleep. The next day the crew set out for the arena, with Tairaa still barely able to stand, but he no longer needed anyone to hold him up. The arena was once again packed with people screaming as they saw the crew walk into the arena.

"I don't like this." Tairaa said as he leaned up against the wall. "I feel like more of a celebrity then a pirate."

"I know what you mean." Akira said as he looked around at all the screaming fans. "But I can almost guarantee that this will be the only island were we are treated like this."

"I just want the bounty." Kurisu said as he sharpened his swords.

"Yup, so let's get this over with." Tairaa said as everyone looked towards him. "So you guys remember the plan?" Everyone nodded their heads.

Suddenly the announcer's voice came over the speakers. "Ladies and gentlemen, this is it, the moment you have all been waiting for! One of the 'Wild Cat Pirates' will fight our now four time champion of the one-on-one arena, after winning last nights one-on-one final, Damian!"

The crowd erupted into cheers as the gate on the other side of the arena opened and Damian walked out. He cracked his knuckles and then waved his hand to motion one of the crew out.

Jiiku quickly stepped out of the gate and the crowd began cheering again. The announcer quickly followed. "It looks like Jiiku will be the one fighting Damian. Jiiku has barely been injured in all of his fights; will Damian be the one to put a stop to this?"

Jiiku quickly charged forward without hesitation and punched at Damian, who caught the punch with one arm and grabbed Jiiku by the neck, lifting him in the air with the other. Damian held Jiiku there for several seconds before seeing Jiiku nod his head and shouting "NOW!"

Suddenly Jiiku's hand shot out at a blinding speed and stabbed at the side of the collar with two fingers. There was a slight click, before the collar suddenly burst at the spot where Jiiku had hit it and fell to the ground.

"I'll ask how you did that later, but for now we got to get out of here." Damian said as Jiiku and he ran towards the gate.

"They're attempting to escape!" The announcer yelled as he hit a button besides him which set off an alarm. Suddenly the passages leading out of the arena from both sides of the outer arena had a large metal door drop over them. "Ladies and gentlemen, please evacuate the arena."

Suddenly there was a large burst of yelling as people scrambled for the exits in the stands. Despite the panic, everyone got out quickly and gates closed over those exits as well. The crew all jumped over the outer wall and ran over to Jiiku and Damian. Everyone formed into a circle, with Tairaa in the middle, still unable to fight well, waiting for whatever came at them.

"You fools really think we didn't see this coming?" Came a voice from the top of the arena. The crew looked up to see a man in a marine uniform with a marine coat hanging over one shoulder.

"We can always dream can't we?" Jiiku said as he chuckled.

"Marines, come out!" The man yelled as suddenly from the top of the seating sections marines emerged from hidden entrances with guns and cannons at the ready.

"Just as I thought." Tairaa said as he saw all the marines surrounding them. "AKIRA NOW!" Tairaa yelled.

Suddenly Akira made a punched the ground and made a large overhead sweeping motion with his arm and a giant dome of earth began to form over the crew.

The marines instantly began firing at the crew, but luckily the dome finished forming just as the cannonballs and bullets reached the crew, causing them to explode or bounce off the rock wall.

"Keep shooting, that wall can't hold up forever!" The marine leader yelled as the marines continued to fire upon the wall around the Wild Cat Crew.

Suddenly the ground began to shake as the dome of earth sunk into the earth and disappeared from view. The crew could no longer be seen.

The marines looked on with shock before the leader began to yell yet again. "Everyone to containment zone B!" and suddenly all the marines began running out of the doors and down the streets of Emor.

The crew was travelling underground in the dome Akira had made and were quite happy to get out with no battles.

"Akira, get us as close to the ship as you can." Tairaa said as he watched Akira continually push his hands forward to move earth out of the way so the dome could move.

Suddenly Akira stopped for a second before shooting his arm upwards as the dome ripped through the ground heading towards the surface. The dome burst out of the ground and disappeared as the crew looked around. The saw they were in the middle of a street.

"Akira, why did we stop here?" Yura asked as everyone turned towards Akira.

Akira simply pointed in front of them and the crew turned to see Razar, Cora and Sakie standing in the middle of the street, they appeared to be breathing heavily. Right in front of them stood a very large number of marines, filling the whole street. Many marines were unconscious and being carried away or in rare cases just thrown to the side so more marines could get through.

Razar turned around to see the rest of the crew. "Sorry, we tried to get to the ship but these guys just won't let up." Razar said as he punched another marine that tried to attack him.

Suddenly more yells began to be heard as the crew turned around to see the marines they had escaped at the arena had chased them all the way here.

"Damn!" Tairaa said as he saw all the marines beginning to surround them. "Okay, here's the plan, Yura and Akira, you guys protect us from behind. Everyone else, push forward." Tairaa yelled as the crew cheered and turned to their respective sides.

"Hey Damian, maybe you can show us that Devil's Fruit of yours now." Jiiku said as he stood beside Damian in battle position.

"How did you know?" Damian questioned as he turned to Jiiku.

"That collar you had on had sea stone in it, so I imagine you have a power?" Jiiku questioned as he jumped forward and began attacking the marines.

"Again, I'll ask how you know that later, but I guess I have to show you guys seeing as I'm joining you and all." Damian said as he suddenly began shaking violently.

Suddenly he started to get even bigger then what he already was, his muscles expanding and his hands and feet getting bigger and even the spiked gloves on his hands grew proportionally to his new body. Then all over his body red hair began growing incredibly quickly. After a couple seconds the crew looked to see that he had become half man half animal.

"I have the Kitsune Kitsune No Mi (Fox Fox Fruit), and I assume you all know the details behind a Zoan type fruit so I don't have to get into that." Damian said in a voice slightly deeper then his normal one. The crew nodded and didn't seem that phased by Damian's announcement.

Damian charged forward first, seeing that Jiiku had already taken out a large number of the marines. "Piercing Howl!" Damian yelled as he howled (or whatever it is that foxes do) and a large shockwave shot from his mouth. The shockwave slammed into the group of marines, sending them flying in all directions.

The marines continued to push forward without rest and Damian charged forward again. "Fox Pulse Slice Fist!" Damian yelled as he jabbed his hand out as quickly as he could and twisted it very quickly at the end of the punch. Suddenly a large burst of air began forming and launched forward in the shape of a fox, bouncing past the marines and cutting them as it did. After it bounced several times, it exploded in a burst of air, sending marines flying yet again.

The crew was amazed at Damian's display of power, and kept pushing forward. Suddenly Tairaa stopped as he began to hear a slight humming noise. He looked down at his shirt to see a slight green glow emanating from under his shirt. "Now…what?" Tairaa said as he gripped his shirt where the glow was coming from.

Suddenly a large bang was heard as Yura was hit by a cannonball from one of the shoulder mounted cannons from the marines. The crew saw her fall down to the ground and marines begin to surround her.

"YURA!" Tairaa yelled as he burst forward and instantly felt pain shoot up both his legs but continued forward despite the pain. Tairaa did a sweeping kick in the air that hit three of the marines and sent them flying. Tairaa spun and punched one of the other marines in the face and knocked him out.

Tairaa was about to attack again but suddenly his whole body pulsed from the pain and he dropped down to his hands and knees and coughed up blood.

The crew turned around to see Tairaa on the ground with a marine over him with his sword drawn and preparing to slice at Tairaa's head. "TAIRAA!" The whole crew yelled they saw Tairaa about to get cut, but none could jump back to help him because they were preoccupied with the marines they were already fighting.

Tairaa prepared to feel steel slice through the back of his neck, but the feeling never came. Instead Tairaa heard a loud impact noise; he looked up expecting to see one of the crew or Roje and Jeimuzu standing above him. Instead he saw a man with very short black hair, and stubble forming a full beard and moustache. He had blue jeans, dark shoes and a white t-shirt covered by a black jacket.

Upon closer inspection Tairaa saw that he had a green glow coming from his shirt as well. Tairaa reached into his shirt and pulled out a necklace, and attached to the necklace was a green gem. The gem was glowing and it caught the attention of the man.

"Well, I guess you figured it out." The man said as he looked down at Tairaa and pulled out a similar necklace from his shirt and held it close to Tairaa's, causing the glow to increase.

"Dad." Was all Tairaa could say as he looked up at the man.

"WHAT!" The crew all yelled as they continued to fight.

The marines around Tairaa's father slightly began to back off, showing fear in their eyes. One of the marines seemed confused by his comrades' sudden burst of fear. "What is it? Who is this man?" He asked the marine beside him.

"You don't know?" The marine responded quickly. "That is one of the most powerful pirates in the New World, Daichi."

The commander of the marines slowly stepped forward, staring at Daichi. "So why does such a powerful pirate come to help these rookies?" The commander said as he slowly drew his sword.

"Did you not hear him?" Daichi said in a mocking voice as he motioned towards Tairaa. "He is my son, and dying here would be such a terrible end to a promising career."

"Well, stopping all of you here would get me a great promotion, maybe ever up to Rear-Admiral. So let's see how good this legendary New World pirate is." The commander said as he jumped forward.

"Which one to go with?" Daichi said as he tabbed his finger on his chin. "Oh, I haven't used this one in a while." Suddenly Daichi brought both his arms out in front of him and kept them very loose. He also began wobbling slightly from side to side.

"Wait, is that…?" Tairaa began but before he could say anything else Daichi almost stumbled to the side to avoid a sword swing.

Tons of marines came charging at Daichi but he managed to almost fall to the side each time to dodge their attacks. After each fall he would jab several times and knock the person out with what looked like very little effort.

"Drunken Boxing, very nice." Tairaa said as he admired his father's style.

"Well, I had fun with this, but I want to end this quickly so…." Daichi paused slightly and straightened his posture. He put both his arms by his side and a pulse shot out from his body. "Tekkai Kenpo!" Daichi jumped forward with a blinding speed, and before the crew realized what happened, the entire squad of marines that was being thrown into the air and knocked away by a force moving so fast they had no way to dodge it.

Once all the marines behind had been dealt with, Daichi reappeared. Now holding on leg in the air and both arms by his side. "Red Leg Style!" He yelled as he charged at the group of marines in front of the crew. Attacking with only his legs he managed to knock out every single one with a speed that amazed the Wild Cat Crew.

Everyone began standing around Tairaa and getting Yura up as Daichi took care of the marines. "Your father is incredible, why did you never tell us about him?" Jiiku asked as he stood in amazement at the strength of Daichi.

"Well frankly I never knew. The only thing I had from my father was this." Tairaa said as he showed the crew the necklace, still glowing green. "It's like a Vivre Card but instead of pointing towards a person, they glow when they get close to each other. So unless that man stole it from my father, he is my father."

"I think I have read about him before." Yura said, finally having regained consciousness. "He is said to be the most gifted martial artist in all the world, able to learn an entire fighting style in less then a day, giving him the nickname 'The Man of A Thousand Styles'. He is said to be so gifted that after seeing a move used once he can discern how to do and how to stop it." The crew's mouths hung open at this amazing news.

"Well I'm glad to know one of your crewmates is well read." Daichi said as he approached the crew. The crew looked behind him and every single marine was unconscious or severely injured and unable to move. He held out his hand towards Tairaa.

"Nice to finally meet you dad." Tairaa said as he grabbed Daichi's hand and let Daichi pull him to his feet.

"Now I would love to stay and talk more then anything, but there are more marine ships in the bay and I didn't bring my crew so I can't hold them off that long." Daichi said as he began running towards the dock, the crew close behind.

"Wait, if you didn't bring your crew, how did you get here?" Tairaa said as he ran beside his father, ignoring the pain he felt from his legs.

"Well I heard a report about the arena fights going on and you being in them, so I told my crew I would be back in a couple weeks and I ran here." Daichi responded, very casually.

"Wait, ran? Like across the water?" Akira said, with confusion in his voice.

"Ya, it took a while and I ran into a couple problems and I had to stop on a couple islands to eat, and getting back into the Grand Line from the New World was annoying, but I made it here after almost a week of running. Daichi said with a smile on his face. The crew stared in disbelief.

"Well lets just get to the ship and get out of here." Razar said as he crew approached the docks.

The crew looked out into the water to see 3 marine ships surrounding their ship with cannons at the ready. The crew stopped where they stood and looked towards the marines.

"Surrender now, there is no way you can escape, make a false move and we will blow your ship out of the water." One of the marines on one of the marine ships yelled with a megaphone.

Daichi turned towards the crew. "I can take out one very quick, but I need help getting the other two before they open fire."

"I can help with that." Jiiku said as he waited for Daichi to make a move.

Suddenly Daichi lifted up on leg just as he had before. "Red Leg Style!" He yelled as he burst forward so fast all the crew could see were two walls of water shooting up into the air where they assumed his feet would be.

No sooner had Daichi pushed off then Jiiku had put two fingers in his mouth and whistled as loud as he could.

Suddenly the crew heard a large crashing sound as they looked out to see one of the marine ships was split completely in half and something appeared to be jumping out of the water. The crew was amazed when they realized it was Birdie, and he was almost the size of a full grown Sea King.

All the marines looked in awe at Birdie as they saw their comrades fly into the air and pieces of wood get scattered everywhere as the ship sunk into the water.

"Don't forget that I'm here!" Daichi yelled as some of the marines looked over to the side to see that Daichi had stopped running and was now standing beside one of the other ships. He yelled as he kicked straight up into the air. The marine ship was sent flying into the air and had a large hole in the bottom of the hull. Daichi quickly jumped off the water up at it and shot his leg forward with one kick and split the ship in half, the crew still looking on in amazement.

The crew heard gunfire as the marines on the last remaining ship attempted to fire at Birdie as he dropped from the sky towards the ship. The bullets and cannonballs had no effect as Birdie slammed into the ship and also broke it in half, sending more marines and wood flying in all directions.

The crew looked back towards Daichi to see him falling towards the water, and the moment he hit it he dashed forward with such speed that he reached the crew in an instant. The crew instantly ran towards the ship and set sail towards the open ocean.

After several minutes the crew felt safe and gathered around Tairaa and Daichi, who were sitting having a conversation in the middle of the deck.

"So what is the New World like?" Tairaa asked as his father sat in front of him.

"Its ridiculous, there are islands where it is raining lightning, and there are islands where you can run on air. There are a ton of things that you have never seen before in your life." Daichi responded as he began eating some food Yura had brought out.

"That's incredible; I don't know how you manage." Tairaa said as the crew sat down to enjoy their meal.

"Well you have to train a lot, some people wait months or even years before going into the New World to make sure they are ready, because the last thing you want is to be killed right after getting there." Daichi said as he started to get up. "Well I guess I better be going, not that your ship isn't nice and all, but I have my own crew to get back to. Oh, and Akira, I'll make sure to say hi to your dad for you." Daichi said as he walked towards the edge of the boat.

"Wait! You know my dad?" Akira said as he walked up to Daichi.

"Old Akuma, of course. We use to be great friends; we travelled the same path through the Grand Line together and had a lot of adventures together." Daichi said as he prepared to jump off the boat. "Well best of luck on the rest of your journey" And with that Daichi jumped off the edge of the boat and began running across the water at an amazing speed, very quickly disappearing from the view of the Wild Cat Crew.

"Your dad is awesome." Jiiku said as he watched the bursting walls of water slowly disappear from view.

"Well that just gives me more motivation to get better." Tairaa said as he smiled. "Besides, we only have one more island before we get to the Red Line and have to go under it to get to Fishman Island, so we should train as much as we can until then, who knows what kind of enemies we will face." The crew cheered as the set sail towards their next destination, prepared for whatever awaited them.

* * *

**Well there you go, another chapter done. Please review, cuz I really feel like im not getting enough of those in recent chapters, and it is the people like SydneyInWonderland and all those who review that give me the drive to keep writing, so if you dont review, I dont feel like writing. Even if its a bad review, it makes me want to write more to change your opinion. **

**Well anyway, still feel free to submit characters for marines or villians the crew will face (obviously through an email or pm so no one knows the future plot) and have a great Christmas/Holiday**


	17. Nothing is as it Appears

**Hello everyone, its me again. Once again it took me forever to get a new chapter out. This is partially because I was busy with University and such and partially because I am a huge procrastinator. **

**Well this chapter is 33 pages long in word and is over 14,000 words. My longest ever, hurray me! I really hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.**

**Well here you go**

**A New Pirate Crew Emerges: Chapter 17 - Nothing is as it Appears**

* * *

It had been several hours since Tairaa's father had left and the crew were all still on the deck, many on high alert for more Marines.

Tairaa sat in the middle of deck, holding the green gem that was on his necklace. The glow had long since faded.

Jiiku walked up beside Tairaa and put his hand on Tairaa's shoulder. "Staring at it won't make you any stronger." Jiiku said as he forced Tairaa to get to his feet.

"How am I ever going to compare to someone like my father?" Tairaa asked as he looked out to sea. "I mean, look how strong he was, I'm nowhere near that level."

"Hey Tairaa, turn around for a second." Jiiku said as Tairaa began to turn around. When Tairaa was facing Jiiku, Jiiku suddenly punched Tairaa in the face and sent him flying back into the side of the ship.

Tairaa rubbed the back of his head as he stood up. "Well that smacked some sense into me." Tairaa said as he put the gem back under his shirt. "Thanks Jiiku." Tairaa said as he patted Jiiku on the back and walked towards the front of the ship.

"I don't know what you're thanking me for; I just wanted to hit you." Jiiku said while smiling.

Tairaa jumped up to the lookout to find Cora. "Hey Cora," Tairaa said as he landed beside her.

"Feeling better Captain?" Cora asked as she continued looking out into the distance using a telescope and taking notes onto a sheet of paper.

"Thanks to Jiiku, yes." Tairaa responded as he looked out into the ocean. "Anything interesting to report?"

"Nothing yet, just calm seas for miles and probably another couple days until we get to the next island the Log Pose is pointing to." Cora said as she finished writing and prepared to jump down from the lookout.

"Hey Cora, after you put away those notes, can you get everyone to meet me in my room for a meeting?" Tairaa asked as Cora stopped to listen.

"Sure thing Captain." Cora said and then jumped down onto the deck.

Tairaa quickly followed and walked into the inner part of the ship and went towards his room.

Several minutes later everyone was gathered in Tairaa's room and was standing around his desk as he sat in his chair.

"Looks guys that last adventure taught me something, we are nowhere near strong enough to even think about something like the New World." Tairaa said as he had a depressed look on his face.

"What do you mean?" Jiiku said as he stepped forward. "We won that fight, didn't we?"

"Yes, but we suffered huge injuries in doing so, I mean look at someone like my father who is surviving in the New World. He was amazingly powerful and yet even he cautioned me about the dangers of New World." Tairaa continued, suddenly slamming his hand on the desk. "I need to be stronger, but I can't do it alone. Can I count on you guys to help me out?" Tairaa reached out his hand towards the crew.

"Of course idiot, it's not like the rest of us don't want to get stronger." Kurisu said as he placed his hand on top of Tairaa's. Everyone else quickly followed.

"Thanks guys." Tairaa said as he took out a sheet of paper and began writing all over it.

"What's that?" Cora asked as she tried to see what Tairaa was writing.

"My new schedule for my training, I have to eliminate as many breaks as I can without killing myself." Tairaa said, not even looking up from the paper, carefully calculating how long certain breaks should take him and if it was possible to fit two into one spot.

"Well we'll just leave that to you." Razar said as he walked out. The rest of the crew said their goodbyes and followed shortly after.

Early the next morning, the sun had barely began rising out of the sky and Tairaa was sitting on deck, with a chess board and was playing against himself. He moved one of the white pieces when suddenly one of the black pieces slid into a new spot.

"Well I didn't expect you to be up this early." Tairaa said as Yura walked up beside him and eventually sat down across from him, analysing the chess board.

"Well when you accidently read other people's minds in your sleep and start having their dreams, you kind of don't like sleeping as much." Yura responded as Tairaa moved another piece forward and took one of the black pieces, it didn't take long before Yura moved her piece and waiting for the next move.

"How can I be sure you're not reading my mind and just cheating?" Tairaa asked as he moved another piece.

"Honestly, you can't. But that makes the game very boring." Yura said as she took one of the white pieces. "Why are you out here playing chess anyway, if I may ask?"

"One must train their mind as well as their body. I can't just be a big mass of muscle and not know how to use it." Tairaa said as he chuckled.

The game went on for several minutes, with Yura eventually beating Tairaa in the end.

"Damn, you certainly are good at this." Tairaa said as he tried to recall how he had lost. "Well that's a good enough amount of mental training, onto physical." Tairaa said as he wasted no time in going over to a different part of the deck where he had some equipment set up and began doing push-ups and other various work outs.

The next day the crew was sitting on the deck, discussing various things when they heard a noise coming from the distance.

"NEWS BIRD!" Jiiku yelled as the crew saw a bird carrying a large package of papers flying to the side of their ship.

"I got it." Tairaa said as he jumped off the ship. "Geppou!" Suddenly Tairaa kicked off the air and went flying out towards the bird. Before the bird had time to react Tairaa had already grabbed a bunch of paper and used Geppou to get back to the ship.

"I guess they started teaching the birds not to drop news to pirate ships." Cora said as Tairaa landed and the crew watched the bird fly away.

"Whatever, we got some, so let's see what's inside." Jiiku said as he reached for the papers Tairaa was holding. Jiiku grabbed the paper and the first thing in the stack was a newspaper. "Here you go Yura, I don't think anyone else wants to read this." Jiiku said as he threw the paper to Yura.

Kurisu grabbed the rest of the stack of papers from Jiiku. "You're being too slow. Let me see those." Kurisu said as he quickly began flipping through the papers. 'Here we go." Kurisu yelled in excitement as placed a large about of papers on the floor, and the crew gathered around to look at them.

They were bounty posters and the crew realized something amazing.

'Wild Cat' Tairaa – 120 Million Beri

'The Idiotic Genius' Jiiku – 66 Million Beri (Jiiku's picture displayed him flashing his regular smile and giving a thumbs up to the camera)

'The One Man Arsenal' Razar – 24 Million Beri

'The Dancing Swordsman' Cora – 12 Million Beri (Cora's picture showed her sheathing her sword after her match in the arena)

'Prodigy of the Sword' Kurisu – 31 Million Beri (Kurisu's picture showed him sitting on the ground sharpening one of his large swords)

Akira 'Devil-Eye' Kido – 45 Million Beri

'Father Nature' Bearpaw Jones – 20 Million Beri

'The Blood Red Fox' Damian – 26 Million Beri (Damian's picture displayed him with his eyes glowing red as he was about to transform)

'The Song of Battle' Sakie Felgray – 11 Million Beri (Sakie's picture showed her charging and about to stab at the cameraman)

Yura 'The White Haired Mind Witch' – 10 Million Beri (Yura's picture looked like it was shot from a weird angle above her and showed her reaching out her hand and a slight purple aura could be seen at the edges of the picture)

"WE ALL HAVE BOUNTIES?" The crew yelled as they looked at the 10 bounty posters before them.

"Well, the Marines certainly come up with some interesting titles to attach to their posters." Yura said as she examined her nickname.

"My dad is going to kill me when he sees this." Cora remarked when she saw her bounty poster.

"The Song of Battle, huh? It's got a nice ring to it." Sakie said as she took out her guitar and began playing a couple of notes. "I could definitely make a song about this."

"I guess my dad finally gave up on trying to hide my involvement from the rest of the marines." Jiiku said as he lifted up his bounty poster and examined it.

"Only the fourth highest?" Kurisu said in disbelief as he examined his bounty and compared it to the rest of the crew.

"Don't worry, it only means you're weaker than me." Akira said with a grin as he patted Kurisu on the back. Needless to say Kurisu drew his sword and began chasing Akira around the ship.

"I'll show you who's weak!" Kurisu yelled as he continued chasing Akira around the ship until Akira tripped and slammed his face into the main mass of the ship. "Clumsy idiot." Kurisu said as he sheathed his sword and walked away.

"What kind of story did the Marines make up in the newspaper about why they gave us higher bounties?" Tairaa said as he looked over at Yura.

"See for yourself." Yura said as she handed the paper over to Tairaa.

**Wild Cat Pirates Aid in Escape of Fugitive**

_The Wild Cat Pirates and their captain 'Wild Cat' Tairaa have made even more trouble for residents in the Grand Line, helping a dangerous fugitive, 'The Blood Red Fox' Damian to escape from custody and allowing him to join them on their quest to destroy the lives of the people in the Grand Line. During their escape, the crew destroyed three Marine Battleships with the help of 'The Man of A Thousand Styles" Daichi, who, as sources have told us, is the father of 'Wild Cat' Tairaa. Marines refused to comment on how exactly 'Wild Cat' came into contact with Damian and how they managed to escape from custody, simply saying "That matter is still under investigation and we will bring you more information as it becomes available. Although due to the escape of Damian, his old bounty poster has been reactivated and the bounty increased slightly because of his increased threat." Marines also warn that anyone who comes into contact with Damian is to not approach him for he is a Carnivorous Zoan type and those are known to be the ones who enjoy violence the most. We will bring you more on this crew as it becomes available._

"I always love reading these." Tairaa said as he laughed slightly at the article.

"Oh, this reminds me." Damian said as he looked at the article. "How did you know how to get that collar off me Jiiku?"

'Easy," Jiiku started as he continued looking at the bounty posters. "When I was back in the Marines, it was one of my friends who designed that collar, so naturally he taught me all the tricks on how to get them off in case I was ever captured and had one put on me."

"Well I guess I should count myself lucky then that it was you guys who came along." Damian said as he passed the article around.

"I don't care wither way, I just wanted a bounty." Kurisu said as he sat on the deck yet again.

"So how are we going to proceed captain?" Cora asked as she looked at her poster yet again.

"The same as we always do, we'll take it one island at a time." Tairaa said as he grinned and laughed slightly.

Suddenly a large column of water shot up beside the ship and the crew looked out into the distance to see three Marine ships. Just then all the ships began to open fire.

"Yura stop those cannonballs!" Tairaa yelled and no sooner had he finished talking then the cannonballs all glowed purple and froze in mid-air. "Now send up back where they came from."

The cannonballs reversed direction and went flying back towards the marine ships, causing several explosions and sending some marines flying.

It took only a couple more seconds for the marines to get close enough to the ship and they began jumping on board.

A large melee squad of marines surrounded the crew with weapons drawn. "Surrender is your only option; attempt to fight and we will shoot." One of the marines yelled as all of the guns aimed towards Tairaa.

"Guys… you should know that it's not going to be that easy." Tairaa said as he snapped his fingers. Almost instantly the entire crew disappeared in a blur of motion and reappeared around the marines, knocking most of them out before they had any time to react.

The remaining crew members in the middle of the marines used this moment to rush at the marines and start a large fight. It wasn't long before the marines had been defeated and thrown back onto their ships, after they had been searched for usable food and supplies.

Tairaa smiled as he watched the marine ships slowly disappear into the distance. "That was a surprising amount of marines." Tairaa said as he turned to the crew, who were sifting through the loot they had taken.

"Well at least we got some more food," Yura started "you guys eat way too much."

"You can make a ton of meals at the same time because of your powers, don't complain." Jiiku said, remembering the days when he use to cook.

"Well we should be on guard, it is unexpected that there are that many marine ships together." Kurisu said as he moved to the front of the ship.

"I suppose you're right." Tairaa said as he walked up beside Kurisu. "I just have a bad feeling about this."

'Don't worry, we can beat anyone who comes at us." Akira said with great confidence.

"Don't jinx us." Cora said as she looked off into the distance. "We still have another day or two before we reach the next island, so we better use our time wisely."

"I like how all of us are just expecting a fight when we get there." Bearpaw said as he stood up and cracked his knuckles. "But I'm looking forward to it."

Way off in the distance, on the nearby island, two people sat on the top of a building, staring out at the sea.

"You really think they'll come." The one on the right said as he turned to face the other one.

"Log Poses are very predictable. Once you know what islands they have been to, it's easy to find out where they are going." The other one said as he continued staring out to sea. "I look forward to our meeting, 'Wild Cat' Tairaa."

The next day the crew were all on the deck, training or readying for whatever they could. Tairaa was doing one handed handstand push-ups at the front of the deck. "23…24….25" Tairaa said before he fell over slightly out of breath and grasping his arm. "Damn that's tiring."

Jiiku on the other hand, was simply lightly hitting a punching bag he had set up on deck, and looked over at Tairaa. "Come on, you should be able to do better than that." Jiiku said as he suddenly punched the bag a lot harder and sent it flying off its stand, and slamming it into the back of the head of Akira, who fell to the floor, rolling around in pain.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT….." Akira started to yell but was cut off by the sound of a large splash of water erupting from beside the ship. The crew looked over and saw a Sea King beside the boat.

"SEA KING!" The whole crew yelled in panic.

Tairaa began to get up before Jiiku stuck his arm in front of Tairaa. "I got this." Jiiku said as he put two fingers in his mouth and whistled as loud as he could.

Suddenly another large splash was heard and the crew looked over to see Birdie, now almost half the size of a Sea King, jump out of the water and bite the Sea King on (what I assume you would call) its neck., causing it to scream in pain and fall back into the water, Birdie quickly following.

Several minutes later Birdie immerged from the water, and the crew could see the skeleton of a Sea King slowly sinking down into the water. Birdie swam right up beside the ship and Jiiku reached over the edge to pet him.

"That's a good boy. Who's my little Sea King eater? It's you, that's right." Jiiku said in a tone people would normally use for puppies or babies.

"So I'm guessing he doesn't stay in his tank anymore?" Akira said, looking at the size of Birdie.

"No, I let him swim free, but he never leaves." Jiiku said as he continued petting Birdie.

"I think I've got a great idea, give me a second." Razar said as he ran into the inside of the ship. The sound of several tools came echoing out from the door. Several minutes later a loud "Finished!" could be heard from within.

Razar emerged carrying a large version of the things you would put on a horse's head to have it pull a carriage.

"With this we can have Birdie pull the ship, it will make it a lot easier to manoeuvre in tight situations, it will make us faster, and I designed a release mechanism for it so he can go free when he needs to eat or wants a break." Razar said as he showed his oversized reigns

"That sounds like a brilliant idea, what do you say Birdie?" Jiiku said as he turned to the oversized shark, who simply nodded his head in agreement.

Birdie was quickly hooked up to the rig and it was hooked onto the side of the ship. After seeing how turns worked and how fast they could go, the crew felt confident in the method.

It didn't take long before Jiiku had decided to sit out on Birdie's head as he pulled the ship, bringing a lounge chair out with him.

"Of course he would be doing that." Damian said as he crew laughed as Jiiku tried to gain his balance to place a chair on top of a giant shark's head.

"I think that's enough fooling around." Tairaa said as he gathered the crew together. "Look, we are going to need to be ready for anything and I just want to go over some stuff."

"Don't worry so much, I mean we did well enough in the last set of fights." Sakie said as the crew nodded in agreement with her.

"That's my point, the last 'set' of fights, we fought so many battles there that were one-on-one that I don't want us to forget about team battles. Not every opponent we face is going to come at us one at a time, especially not once we begin encountering other pirate groups." Tairaa said with a hint of concern in his voice.

"Well then let's practice fighting in teams." Kurisu said as he readied a training sword.

"Okay, let's start with groups of two, we need to find two people who complement each other." Tairaa said as the training began.

Several hours later the crew were sitting on the deck. "Well that was good." Jiiku said as he looked around at everyone, some people a bit more tired than others.

"We should get some rest though, the next island should be within sight in a couple hours." Cora said as she put her sword back in her sheath and walked towards the inside of the ship.

"How about a nice meal first?" Tairaa said as he turned towards Yura, everyone else eventually followed.

Yura looked around for a couple seconds before sighing and saying "Fine, let's go."

The crew cheered in excitement.

After a large diner and a good night's sleep, the crew awoke in the morning and were ready for anything the world could throw at them.

"Guys look," Bearpaw said as he pointed off in the distance. The crew looked and saw an island far off in the distance.

The crew began to gather around the front of the ship, looking off into the distance at the island.

"Those look like some pretty big buildings." Jiiku said as the crew could see the outlines of some buildings on the island.

"Ya, you're right." Razar said as he also looked at the large structures emerging from the ground.

"I'm getting excited." Tairaa said as he continued looking at the island. "I wonder what kind of people will be living there?"

"Hopefully someone I can fight, I was beginning to get bored." Kurisu said as he strapped his knife to his boot.

"Are you ever going to get bored of fighting?" Sakie asked as she turned to face Kurisu. "There is more to life then fighting you know?"

"I disagree, we fight to survive, we fight to continue our journey, we fight to get stronger. This life we have chosen is full of nothing but fighting." Kurisu said, in an almost enlightened sounding tone.

"Wow, you say something smart for once." Jiiku said in a mocking tone as he began to chuckle.

"I don't want to hear that from you." Kurisu responded as he glared at Jiiku.

"I'm sorry, did I touch a nerve because you were trying to impress Sakie." Jiiku said as he continued laughing

Kurisu slightly paused at this rebuttal. "I have no idea what you are talking about."

"Good, then that means I can make a move on her." Jiiku whispered to Kurisu.

"You realize I'm right here and can hear everything you're saying right?" Sakie said as she looked over at Jiiku and Kurisu.

"Come on Sakie, don't you want to have an unforgettable night with me? I guarantee it will blow your mind, and afterwards maybe you could blow my little fri…" Jiiku was interrupted as both Sakie and Kurisu hit Jiiku over head causing him to slam face first into the deck. He got up slowly, dusting off his shirt. "Well that wasn't very nice. What could this guy have that I don't? Besides cowardice obviously."

"I'll show you who's a coward!" Kurisu yelled as he swung his sword at Jiiku, who quickly blocked it by slamming his hand against the flat part of the sword.

"You're going to have to work more than that to hit me, you mediocre swordsman." Jiiku said as he jumped back slightly.

"I'LL SHOW YOU MEDIOCRE!" Kurisu yelled in rage as he began chasing Jiiku around the deck, swinging his sword wildly.

Jiiku was barely avoiding Kurisu's attacks when suddenly both of them were sent flying in opposite directions by a large blast that came from in between them.

"Thanks Yura." Tairaa said as he looked at Jiiku and Kurisu, Yura nodding and holding her hand out in the direction of them both. "Can you guys save some of that energy for any actual enemies we have to face, not these stupid little arguments.

"Guys, the island is about 3 minutes away, I think we should get ready." Cora said as she seemed to be the only one not watching the fight between Jiiku and Kurisu.

Everyone quickly turned their attention out to sea.

"Great!" Tairaa yelled in excitement. "Birdie, bring us in."

Somewhere on the island, in a dark hallway, a man was running as fast as he could, breathing heavily.

Voices began to echo from all around him. "Look, one of them got away." Came a voice from seemingly nowhere.

"And he didn't even let out his friends, did we scare him that much." Came another voice.

"Can I take care of him, please?" The first voice said again.

"Just don't kill him, he's worth a decent amount of money." The second voice said.

"NO, STAY AWAY!" The man yelled as he continued running down the hallway towards a light.

He emerged out from the hallway and was temporarily blinded by the light. When he opened his eyes again he saw a tall figure standing in front of him.

"Don't worry." Said the man who sounded like the first echo from the hallway. "This will only hurt a lot."

"AHHHHHHHHH!" The man screamed as an intense pain swept over his body and he collapsed into unconsciousness.

The man was unconscious on the floor when another figure walked up beside the first one. "You overdid it." The man said, sounding like the second voice from the hallway.

"I can't help being so excited since we are going to be fighting strong people." The first man said, as he cracked his knuckles in anticipation.

"You need to calm down, we just have to finish this like every other assignment we've ever done." The second man said.

"I know, I know. But you can't blame me for wanting to fight a crew with a combined total of 365 million Beri bounty." The first man said again, smiling as he looked off into the distance

"I guess, but just make sure that you don't lose control, I don't feel like having to deal with that again." The second man said, lifting up the unconscious man. "I'm going to go put our friend back in the cell, why don't you prepare a warm welcome for our guests?"

"I think I know exactly how to make them feel right at home." The man said as he walked away laughing.

The crew disembarked from their ship and began walking up the coast towards a path they believed led to a village. Tairaa was walking in the front of the group with Roje and Jeimuzu and looked very confident; suddenly he turned to look at the forest that bordered the beach. The crew quickly turned to see what he was looking at.

"What are you staring at?" Jiiku asked as he looked out at the forest.

"I thought I saw someone, must have just been my imagination." Tairaa said as he shook his head and continued walking forward, the rest of the crew followed shortly after.

The crew walked for several more minutes before they got to a large city in the middle of a clearing. There were tall buildings and a large amount of people walking around from store to store.

"Wow, look at all the people in this city." Cora said as she looked around in amazement.

Yura slightly lifted her head, looking around the city as well, although she didn't seem as impressed

The crew walked into a restaurant that looked nice and sat down at a table. Soon a waitress came over, who Jiiku wasted no time in hitting on. The crew laughed as they ordered their food.

The waitress walked back several minutes later holding plates of food and placing them before the crew, who instantly began digging in.

"What's wrong Yura; you've hardly touched your food." Tairaa said as he looked over at Yura, who was simply staring at her plate.

"Maybe you can get in the kitchen and show them how it's done." Razar said as he continued eating large portions of food at once.

"I guess I just had something else on my mind." Yura said as she slowly starting eating the flood, although appeared to be savoring the taste.

When the crew was all finished the waitress came over and cleaned up, Tairaa reached into his pocket and handed her some money for the food and a tip, but when the waitress walked away he saw Yura looking strangely at him. "What's wrong? Did I give too much?" Tairaa said as he looked over at Yura.

Yura quickly snapped back into reality. "Oh no, sorry, I was just zoning out again." Yura said as she quickly looked around the restaurant.

The crew continued walking down the street towards what looked like the town center.

"Hey guys, I need to tell you something." Yura said, but was confused when the crew kept walking like they didn't hear her. "Hey guys!" She yelled this time, but the crew continued on.

Yura stopped walking but still the crew did not stop or even notice. "_Damn, I didn't think you would find out this quick." _Yura said telepathically to someone.

"You think you can override my controls without me realizing it." Said a voice that seemed to come from the air surrounding Yura. "I was just having a little fun with you."

"I guess you could say I was doing the same thing." Yura said as she suddenly emitted a huge burst of purple energy. When it hit the crew they all suddenly began spinning around in disbelief.

"What the hell is happening?" Kurisu yelled as he looked around the town, it was completely deserted and all the buildings had long since been abandoned.

"Maybe you could ask our new friend." Yura said as the crew turned and was surprised to see her so far away. "He has a similar ability to me, that's why I was able to barely counteract." Yura then pointed out in the distance and the crew saw a man standing at the edge of the forest around the city.

"That's the guy I saw when we were walking along the beach." Tairaa said as the crew ran up beside Yura.

"He seems to have some kind of Devil's Fruit that allows him to alter our minds or something." Yura said as the crew began running at the man, who quickly disappeared into the forest.

"So everything we just saw and ate and heard was part of that guy's illusion?" Damian said as he ran to the front of the group, beside Tairaa and Yura.

"Seems like it." Tairaa said as the turned to yell at the crew while running. "Don't get to far from Yura, I think she is the only one who can stop him from taking control of us."

Everyone nodded in agreement and continued chasing the shadow into the woods.

"You guys are no fun." Said the man as it sounded like he was all around them. "Normally I make a crew wander around for days, eating food that doesn't exist and buying things that don't exist. Eventually the just collapse from hunger without ever knowing why." The man said again as he began laughing.

"Yura keep us covered!" Tairaa yelled as he turned towards Cora. "Cora, let's go with pattern two!"

Cora nodded as suddenly Tairaa and Cora both burst forward in a blur of motion, quickly appearing beside the man they were chasing.

"Rankyaku!" Tairaa yelled as he kicked his leg and shot a blade of air and Cora dashed forward right underneath it at the same time.

Cora slashed at the man's legs and he jumped into the air, forgetting about Tairaa's attack, which suddenly hit him in the chest and sent him flying backwards, slamming him into a tree.

When his body hit the tree, it disappeared as if it were a mirage.

"Yura!" Tairaa yelled as he looked back towards Yura, who looked very deep in concentration.

"I'm trying, it's harder to counteract his powers then I thought." Yura said as the crew emerged from the forest into a large clearing.

Everyone wasted to time in surrounding Yura, knowing she was the only one who could help them in this situation.

"Now this is what I was hoping for." Said the man as his voice continued to echo from all around them. "It's so much more entertaining when the prey fights back." The man said as he once again began to laugh.

"Yura, realistically how much of his powers can you block?" Tairaa said as he turned towards Yura.

"If I don't have to fight or move I can make it so we keep our sight and hearing, but it also depends how far you guys are away." Yura said, still with her eyes closed and a small purple aura emitting from her and flowing towards the crew.

"Sight is the highest priority, if we lose that we can't hit him." Tairaa said as he started scanning around for the man.

"Akira!" Tairaa yelled and Akira instantly responded.

"I found him!" Akira yelled as he had his hand placed to the ground. "50 Meters west! In the forest!"

"I'll get him!" Damian and Jiiku yelled simultaneously as they both burst westward.

"Follow them!" Tairaa yelled as the crew once again began running.

"I can't keep him from using his powers if we keep moving!" Yura yelled to the people running in front of her.

"Well then you just have to stay still." Akira said as he hit the ground and the earth under Yura rose into the air.

Yura stopped running and stood on the chunk of earth as it followed the crew. "Thanks Akira." Yura said as she once again began concentrating.

"Tairaa!" Damian yelled as he started slowing down.

"I smell it too." Tairaa said as he thought for a split second before his eyes shot open in shock. "Its black powder, EVERYONE JUMP!" Tairaa yelled as the entire crew jumped up into the air just as the ground under them began exploding, sending bits of trees and dirt flying in all direction.

Luckily as they jumped Akira brought up a large area of earth and the crew landed on it and floated in the air and watched the forest below them burst into flames from the explosion.

"You guys should really be careful about who you let onto your floating rocks." Came a voice from behind the crew as they spun around and saw a man with his hand on Yura's shoulder as her eyes rolled back in her head and then she suddenly collapsed onto the ground, unconscious.

"What did you do?" Bearpaw yelled as he quickly ran to Yura and pulled her away from the man.

"Well you guys aren't very friendly. Not even asking for my name." The man said, standing still, and this gave the crew a better chance to look at him.

He had very dark skin and a very short afro. He stood at over 6 feet tall and had a very strong physique. He wore a dark pair of pants, black shoes and a grey tee shirt with designs drawn all over it.

"Well I for one would love to know who you are." Jiiku said as he stepped forward.

"How polite from the former Marine, I am Takeshi, a bounty hunter working for the marines." Takeshi responded, smiling as he did.

"Of course it has to be the marines. Why can't we ever just go through an island and not have to fight someone." Razar said as the crew took battle positions.

"You won't even be able to come close to me without this girl." Takeshi said as he pointed towards Yura, who was still unconscious. "I have the Sense Sense Fruit, and I can control all 5 of your senses. Even you two attempting to sniff me out won't be able to pinpoint me," Takeshi continued, while motioning towards Tairaa and Damian. "I can make you smell whatever I want."

Suddenly Tairaa and Damian both covered their noses and began making that sound people make when they smell something terrible. "Oh god, it smells like a Sea King just took a dump on my nose!" Damian yelled as he tried to get rid of the smell.

"What did you do to Yura?" Sakie said as she readied her glaive and aimed it towards Takeshi.

"I just took control over her sense of touch and made her feel as if she had been crushed in a landslide. Her mind couldn't take it and she collapsed." Takeshi said while looking at the crew. "Don't worry, she isn't dead. I need you guys alive to cash in on your bounties."

Suddenly the crew stopped moving as they heard Yura talking into their heads. _"Guys, in order for him to control your sense of touch, he needs to touch you himself, that is his real body."_

"Jiiku, Kurisu! Pattern 1!" Tairaa said as he charged forward at Takeshi and did a spinning back kick.

Takeshi disappeared in a blur, but Tairaa said "Soru" and quickly followed with a blur of his own.

Soon the two reappeared beside the floating rock in the middle of the air, Tairaa aimed a punch at Takeshi's head, but he let himself fall and dodged the punch.

Tairaa kept himself in the air with Geppou as Takeshi fell towards the ground, with a smile on his face.

"Kurisu now!" Tairaa yelled as suddenly Kurisu jumped off the rock and fell towards Takeshi with his large sword drawn.

"Crimson Hammer!" Kurisu yelled as the red glow from his Crimson Wave began to surround his sword as he fell towards Takeshi, who looked on in shock.

The sword was about to connect, but Takeshi grabbed it with both his hands, stopping a large blow, but he was still falling quickly towards the ground. He looked under himself and saw Jiiku standing on the floor of the forest.

Jiiku quickly jumped into the air and yelled "Soru!" As he kicked off the air like Geppou, but with a lot more speed. Jiiku extended his fist and was heading right for Takeshi.

"Shi…" Was all Takeshi could say before he was hit by Jiiku, causing a large shockwave as well as an explosion of red energy that pushed Jiiku and Kurisu away.

Akira set the rock down on the ground and everyone ran around Yura, who was slowly starting to get up.

"Yura, we need you quick, there is no way we got rid of that guy that easily." Tairaa said as he continued to scan around the crew, looking for Takeshi.

"Tairaa, he is running north, about 100 meters away from us right now." Akira said as he held his hand to the ground.

"Bearpaw, carry Yura. Sakie, guard Bearpaw." Tairaa said as they all nodded and began running towards Takeshi.

"Wait, why are we chasing him?" Cora asked as they continued running. "Shouldn't we use this chance to get away and help Yura?"

"You really think we can get away without that guy finding us?" Tairaa said as he continued running and looking ahead. "Plus, he might have backup so we need to stop him from getting to them."

The crew eventually came to another clearing in the forest and saw Takeshi standing in the middle of it. His shirt had a large amount of rips and tears in it, and his right arm was slightly scrapped.

"What's this, still following me I see." Takeshi said as he turned to see the crew. "Do you wish for your own deaths that much?"

"Can't blame us for finishing what we start." Jiiku said as he began cracking his knuckles.

"I guess so." Takeshi said as he chuckled slightly. "Well…come at me then."

"I have a better idea." Tairaa said as he fused with Roje and Jeimuzu while standing in the clearing. He then suddenly disappeared in a blur of motion and almost instantly appeared behind Takeshi. "Why don't you go to them?" Tairaa said he kicked out his foot towards Takeshi. But Takeshi turned around in time and grabbed Tairaa's leg.

"How about you feel what it's like having a Sea King sit on your leg" Takeshi said as suddenly Tairaa burst out in screams of pain and fell to the floor.

Kurisu and Jiiku wasted no time after Tairaa was stopped to dash forward at Takeshi, who quickly jumped up in the air.

Kurisu almost instantly changed directions and launched upwards towards Takeshi, swinging his sword in a wide arc.

Takeshi leaned back in mid-air, the sword just barely going over top of him. He then shot out his leg and kicked Kurisu, sending him flying back towards the ground.

Kurisu slammed into the ground and shortly after Takeshi landed, Jiiku was already in his face and threw a punch at his head as fast as he could.

Takeshi dodged to the side and punched at Jiiku's chest, but Jiiku used him arm to push the attack off to the side. But as Takeshi's arm was sliding next to Jiiku's, he smiled and suddenly Jiiku pulled his arm back and grabbed it in pain. This gave Takeshi and opening and he punched Jiiku in the stomach and shot him back causing him to crash into Tairaa.

"OUR TURN!" Yelled Razar as him, Damian and Bearpaw charged forward, Damian changing into his half-fox form while running.

"Piercing Howl!" Damian yelled as he shot a pulse out of his mouth and it flew, towards Takeshi.

"I'm getting tired of being on the defensive." Takeshi said as he suddenly flexed his arm and swung it to the side right as Damian's attack got close, causing it to go flying to the side and break some trees in the forest. He instantly charged forward, to the surprise of Bearpaw, who was kicked in the side of the head and sent rolling to the side, but he steadied himself while sliding and charged forward yet again.

By this time Tairaa, Jiiku and Kurisu were up on their feet. "Akira and Yura, provide long range support! Sakie and Cora, get his back!" Tairaa yelled as he ran back into the fight.

Akira wasted no time in slamming his foot into the ground and causing a large boulder to be ripped from the earth. "Tsu Tsu Gatling!" He yelled as he punched the rock and caused it to shatter into many pieces that flew towards Takeshi at high speeds.

Takeshi ran to the side to dodge, but ran straight into the path of Tairaa, who punched him in the side of the head and sent him flying back towards the rocks, where he was quickly hit by several, causing several cuts and knocking him to the ground.

Takeshi was given no time to recover as suddenly Damian and Razar were over him and pulled their fists back and punched out at the same time, causing a large explosion of dust that left a crater.

The crew looked into the crater but could not see Takeshi.

"Protect Yura!" Tairaa yelled as the crew started surrounding Yura.

"You kids are beginning to tire me with your useless efforts." Came Takeshi's voice as suddenly Akira was hit and sent flying.

The crew quickly turned and saw Takeshi already swinging and hitting Razar with a spinning back fist, also sending him flying.

Both Akira and Razar rebalanced while sliding and stopped after several feet.

"Guys, let's go with Combo 3!" Tairaa yelled as Akira and Razar got back together with the crew.

"Tsu Tsu Lock!" Akira yelled as he stomped the ground and twisted his hands. Before Takeshi had time to react, the earth underneath his feet rose up and locked him into the ground.

Damian instantly ran forward and uppercut Takeshi in the jaw, just as Akira released the locks, sending Takeshi into the air and also causing small cuts because of Damian's spiked knuckle gloves.

Without giving him any time to recover in the air, Tairaa and Jiiku jumped up and both did spinning kicks as hard as they could that sent Takeshi flying diagonally back towards the ground, where Yura was waiting.

Yura lifted her hands just has Takeshi got close to her. "Mind Mind Pillar!" She yelled as a burst of purple energy went off under Takeshi and sent him flying back up into the sky. Takeshi turned to look up and saw Razar and Bearpaw right above him. They both punched at the same time and hit Takeshi in his stomach, sending him flying back towards the ground.

Just before he was about to hit the ground, Cora, Kurisu and Sakie all jumped at Takeshi from different directions with their weapons drawn. They all swung quickly as they passed him, cuts opening on his arms, legs and chest.

Takeshi hit the ground and all the crew stopped to catch their breath. They were all relieved when suddenly Takeshi began standing up.

"There is no way he should be able to stand. We hit all the major muscle groups in his legs and arms." Kurisu said as he watched Takeshi rise to his feet.

"That's where you're wrong." Takeshi said, breathing slightly heavier than normal. "Because that whole time, I was actually slightly to the left of where you were aiming. That little mind girl was concentrating slightly too much on her attack and it made me able to change your sight, even if just slightly." Takeshi said, as he began laughing.

"Guys get ready!" Tairaa yelled as the crew got back into battle positions.

"Now let's have a little fun." Takeshi said as he vanished with a lot more speed than he had been using before. He suddenly appeared in front of Kurisu and kneed him in the stomach, sending him flying backwards through the air. He disappeared again a reappeared slightly ahead of where Kurisu was. He lifted up his arm and punched Kurisu into the ground and he passed beside him.

"KURISU!" The crew yelled as they watched the dust fly up into the air and surround the area where Kurisu got hit into the ground.

"I think you should be worrying about yourself." Takeshi said as he was suddenly beside Cora and kicked her in the side of the head, sending her flying into the forest and causing her to crash through several trees.

"CORA!" Razar screamed in anger as he charged towards Takeshi and threw a punch with as much power as he could.

Takeshi barely had time to duck under the punch but once he did, he uppercut Razar in the stomach, causing Razar to cough up blood before Takeshi punched him in the head and knocked him to the ground.

Takeshi didn't waste any time in charging at Jiiku, who dodged several of the punches that Takeshi threw at him, but was unprepared when Takeshi jumped in the air and kneed Jiiku in the head, knocking him to the ground.

Once Takeshi landed Tairaa was charging at him with the remaining crew members. Tairaa did a sweeping leg kick and Takeshi jumped into the air, only to be followed by Bearpaw.

Bearpaw stuck out his palm, right in front of Takeshi. "Tornado Palm!" Bearpaw yelled as air shot out of his hand and slammed into Takeshi, sending him flying back, but he instantly recovered and pushed off the ground towards Bearpaw, who had no time to react and got roundhouse kicked in the head and was sent spinning towards the ground, where he collided and caused a large crater.

"Now let's get rid of the annoying one." Takeshi said as he landed on the ground and instantly began running towards Yura, who fired a Mind Pulse in front of her, but Takeshi quickly ran to the side and dodged it. He ran to the side of Yura and grabbed her arm and threw her at Sakie.

Sakie tried to catch Yura but as soon as she did Takeshi was behind her and punched her in the back and sent her and Yura flying into the forest, crashing into more trees.

Only Tairaa and Damian remained, both looking around, concerned for their friends.

"Without that girl you guys don't even stand a chance." Takeshi said as he began multiplying and suddenly there were a hundred of Takeshi, all surrounding Tairaa and Damian.

The copies all charged in and Tairaa and Damian started trying to hit them, but every time they tried the copy would simply vanish into the air.

"How the hell do we find the real one?" Damian asked as he continued dodging attacks.

"I don't know, maybe we can…." Tairaa was cut off when he suddenly got hit and sent flying to the side, rolling along the ground.

"Tairaa!" Damian yelled as he looked around, but surprisingly there was no one that was anywhere near where Tairaa had been standing. All the copies were standing far away.

"You really think I would make myself visible among all the clones?" Came Takeshi's voice from the air.

Suddenly Damian was knocked to the ground as Takeshi appeared behind him and put both his hands together and dropped them on top of Damian's head.

Takeshi slowly started walking away from the scene. "I can't believe I was excited to fight such weakling." Takeshi said as he sighed in disappointment.

"Don't say that, you're going to make me sad." Came Jiiku's voice in a sarcastic tone.

Takeshi turned around and slightly smiled. "Well I guess I couldn't get rid of you that easily." Takeshi said as he looked and saw the entire Wild Cat Pirate Crew standing together in front of him.

"You know I'm going to have to pay you back tenfold for what you did to Cora." Razar said as he cracked his neck.

"Well I'll give you guys this, I've never had a fight last this long before." Takeshi said as he readied his stance again. "You got very lucky having one of the only Devil's Fruits that can counter mine." Takeshi said as he looked towards Yura.

"What can I say? I've always been a lucky guy." Tairaa said as he prepared to charge forward.

"Rankyaku Barrage!" Tairaa yelled as he kicked his legs out incredibly quickly and fired five quick Rankyakus at Takeshi, who jumped to the side just in time to dodge them.

Right as he landed the earth began to move up his legs. "Not this time." Takeshi said as he quickly jumped and broke off the earth that had started to form on his legs.

"Blood River!" Came Kurisu's voice from behind Takeshi as Kurisu sheathed one of his katanas. Suddenly Takeshi had multiple cuts open over his body, adding to the cuts already on his body.

Takeshi landed, slightly gasping for air. "I will not be taken down by these amateurs!" He yelled as there was a sudden burst of pressure and suddenly the crew began seeing multiples of Takeshi and hearing a very annoying buzzing sound.

"Yura!" Tairaa yelled, trying to listen over the buzzing noise.

"I'm trying, but it's getting too strong, I'm going to have to focus only on sight and we are going to lose our sense of hearing." Yura said as the purple aura around her began to increase.

"Do it!" Tairaa said and then the crew could hear nothing. Despite the danger they knew they couldn't lose their sense of sight or the fight would be over.

Suddenly Takeshi disappeared and the entire crew was looking around frantically. No one knew where he was until they saw Yura get knocked across the floor and suddenly no one could see anyone else.

Tairaa looked out at where his crew use to be standing and they were no longer there. He knew that they were experiencing the same thing. Suddenly the ground under Tairaa sank and he dropped about 6 inches into the ground and felt a quick gust of wind go over his head.

"_I see what's happening here. He didn't get rid of your sense of touch, did he Akira?" _Tairaa said as he smiled and realized Akira was feeling the earth for Takeshi's movements and using the earth to move the crew out of harm's way.

Suddenly Tairaa saw the earth in front of him shoot out of the ground, and his vision came back for a split second to see Takeshi being thrown into the air after getting hit by the earth. But once he landed Tairaa lost his vision once again.

After a few seconds more earth began to shoot forth from the ground in rapid succession, but Tairaa did not regain his vision this time and he knew Takeshi was dodging the attacks. But when Tairaa looked closer, he could see two small rocks that appeared to just be flying around randomly.

Once Tairaa looked at them for several seconds he realized they were arrows, pointing up. _"That's where he is!" _Tairaa thought as he charged forward and did a sweeping kick in mid-air and felt his leg make contact with a person.

Suddenly everyone's vision and hearing came back long enough to see Tairaa hitting Takeshi and yelling "GET HIM!"

The entire crew burst forward charging at Takeshi. _"I don't think I can dodge this one." _Takeshi thought as he prepared for an intense amount of pain.

Suddenly there was a large explosion and dust was sent flying in all directions. The crew jumped back as the dust began to settle.

'I leave you for 10 minutes and this is what happens?" Came a voice from inside the impact zone.

"It's not my fault; they have someone that can counter my powers." Takeshi said, although the crew couldn't see him or who he was talking to. At this time Yura had gotten up and was standing beside the crew.

"You really need to work on learning to adapt." The voice said again.

Now the dust was beginning to settle and the crew could see the other man who was standing in front of Takeshi. He was about 6 feet tall and had brown hair that was about the same length as Tairaa's. He wore a light blue button up shirt with vertical stripes and a pair of jeans. He also appeared to have a similar physique to Takeshi.

He turned towards the crew, who were all on guard. "I'm Katsutoshi." He said with a smile.

"Drop the smile, we know you aren't here to make friends." Kurisu said as he readied her swords.

"Fine, if that's what you want." Katsutoshi said as he got into a battle position. Takeshi standing up and getting ready beside him.

Suddenly there was a large puff of smoke and when it cleared there was three of Katsutoshi standing in front of Takeshi.

"I'm getting pissed off with all these illusions." Jiiku said as he charged forward, heading straight for Takeshi.

"Jiiku wait!" Yura yelled but it was too late. One of the Katsutoshis jumped forward and punched Jiiku in the jaw, sending him flying up into the air. Another one of them jumped up and punched Jiiku down towards the ground.

Jiiku managed to balance himself in mid-air and land on his feet, catching his breath from the impact.

"What the hell was that?" Jiiku said as rubbed his jaw.

"Those aren't caused by the other guys powers." Yura said as she motioned towards Takeshi. "It's most likely this guy also has a Devil's Fruit."

"You are right. I have eaten the Copy Copy Fruit, and can create infinite copies of myself at will." Katsutoshi said as the two copies of him walked forward towards the crew.

"Well I better stop holding back then." Tairaa said as he looked over and Jiiku and they both nodded. "Fusion: Legs – 20 Percent!" Tairaa yelled as there was a burst of pressure and he suddenly disappeared in a blur of motion.

Katsutoshi readied himself for an attack but suddenly heard a gasp for air from behind him. He turned around and saw that Tairaa had punched Takeshi in the stomach and sent him flying through the air.

"Takeshi!" Katsutoshi yelled as he prepared to run at Tairaa, but was cut off by Razar, Bearpaw, and Damian appearing in front of him and his clones.

"I don't think so bud." Razar said as they started fighting.

Takeshi was flying through the air and opened his eyes just in time to see Jiiku appear over top of him and punch him towards the ground. He hit the ground hard and coughed up a large amount of blood, barely staying conscious.

Suddenly Jiiku and Tairaa appeared over top of him again, both with their fists drawn back. "Jugon!" The both yelled as they shot their fists forward and blinding speeds, Tairaa hitting Takeshi in the head and Jiiku hitting his stomach.

Takeshi coughed up blood one more time and then slipped into unconsciousness.

"Akira!" Tairaa yelled as he saw Takeshi's eyes close.

"Got it!" Akira yelled back as he slammed his foot on the ground and the earth came out of the ground around Takeshi and buried everything except his head. Then more earth came up and covered his eyes in case he did wake up.

Tairaa and Jiiku turned around and saw that there were now 8 copies of Katsutoshi, one fighting each crew member. The one fighting Kurisu turned and saw Tairaa and Jiiku had taken care of Takeshi and suddenly jumped away from Kurisu.

There was a another explosion of smoke and two more Katsutoshis appeared, one charging back towards Kurisu and one charged at Jiiku, knocking him up into the air and started fighting.

Tairaa wasted no time in dashing forward towards the real Katsutoshi. "Jugon!" Tairaa yelled again as he shot his fist out with incredible speeds. Just before it connected Katsutoshi disappeared in a blur of motion, catching Tairaa off guard. Almost instantly he was kicked in the back and sent cartwheeling across the ground.

Tairaa managed to push off the ground and spin in the air to readjust himself so he the ground with his feet. As soon as he touched the ground he dashed forward again at Katsutoshi. Tairaa shot out his elbow but Katsutoshi caught it and instantly upper cut Tairaa, sending him flying into the air.

Tairaa spun himself upside down so that his feet were pointing up. "Geppou!" Tairaa said as he kicked off the air and went flying down towards Katsutoshi with his fist pulled back yet again. "Jugon!" Tairaa yelled just before he got to the ground and shot out his fist again.

Katsutoshi moved just as Tairaa's fist hit the ground, causing a large crater and sending dust flying in all directions.

When the dust cleared, Tairaa and Katsutoshi were just staring at each other. "I didn't expect someone so strong to be here." Tairaa said as he cracked his knuckles.

"And I didn't expect you to be able to put up this much of a fight." Katsutoshi said as got into a fighting position.

"You'll find I'm full of surprises." Tairaa said as he dashed back at Katsutoshi and the two continued to fight.

Kurisu was swinging his large sword around, as the copy jumped around, dodging all the attacks. "Stop being so damn cowardly!" Kurisu yelled as he continued chasing the copy around.

The copy suddenly charged forward and kicked at Kurisu, who had just enough time to bring up his sword to block the kick, but was sent sliding backwards by the impact.

Kurisu drew his other large sword and placed both his swords close together over his head. "Crimson Tsunami!" He yelled as he swung both the swords downwards as quick as he could. A large wave of red that was almost 3 times as large as his Crimson Wave shot forward towards the copy, who had no time to dodge and was hit by the full force.

After several seconds the copy exploded into a cloud of smoke, the same as how he formed.

Tairaa was in the middle of fighting Katsutoshi when the copy died, and he saw Katsutoshi slightly twitch. "Guys, he is connected to his copies, so when they die, he gets hurt a little bit himself." Tairaa yelled while dodging punches from Katsutoshi.

The crew all heard him and instantly began pushing forward against their opponents.

Damian punched forward and twisted fist just as the punch ended. "Fox Pulse Fist!" Damian yelled as air burst forward in the shape of a fox towards the copy, who jumped to the side, but the fox exploded just beside him, causing him to cover his eyes for a second.

"One of the basic rules of street fights, don't close your eyes." Damian said as he appeared in front of the copy and punched it as hard as he could in its stomach, causing it to also explode.

At the same time Yura was firing her Mind Gun at the copy, who was easily jumping over and dodging them as he tried to get closer to Yura. He ducked under one last shot and was within striking distance of Yura. He pulled back his arm and shot out a punch at her head. She ducked just in time as the punch went right over her. She instantly uppercut the copy in the stomach and fired a pulse that shot him up into the air.

Before he had time to react Yura had raised her hand like she did for her mind gun, but this time 6 of the knives off her belt floated up and began rotating around her hand. "Mind Revolver!" She yelled as she fired the gun three times and three of the knives shot forward and hit the copy in the chest, followed almost immediately by him turning into smoke.

In the meantime, Cora was chasing one of the copies, swinging her sword but he always seemed to dodge to the side at the last second.

Cora dashed forward and swung the sword horizontally at the copy's legs. The copy jumped over it and Cora went under him, pointed her sword straight up in the air and began spinning. "Dancing Sword Style: Free Spin Drill!" Cora yelled as she pushed off the ground and flew towards the copy, who couldn't adjust his body in mid-air and was hit by the end of Cora's sword and instantly disappeared.

Akira was shooting many chunks of earth towards the copy in front of him. The copy charged forward but Akira easily dodged to the side and knocked the copy away with a kick.

Akira instantly shot out a Tsu Tsu Fist that clipped the copy who winced in pain for just a second. But Akira took this chance to do a Tsu Tsu Uppercut as the earth shot out from under the copy and hit him in the chin, sending him flying into the air.

Akira wasted no time in creating another large chunk of earth that flew into the air with him on top of it. Once he was high above the copy, who was starting to recover, he jumped off the earth and punched it as hard as he could while aiming it at the copy. "Tsu Tsu Meteor!" Akira yelled as the chunk of earth flew towards the copy, who attempted to block it, but it was no use. The rock hit him with incredible force and pushed him into the ground, causing a large explosion of dust and leaving a small crater. When the dust cleared the copy had exploded as well.

Razar was in a fist fight with one of the copies, who could not land any hits, but was dodging all of Razar's punches.

Finally Razar jumped back and threw his shell at the copy, who stuck out his hand and attempted to stop the shell. After a couple seconds of struggling he succeeded and held the shell in his hand.

"Bad idea." Razar said as he pressed a button on belt. Suddenly there was a clicking noise from the shell. When the copy looked at it the spikes suddenly shot out and exploded, destroying the copy instantly.

In the meantime, Sakie was charging forward at one of the copies, stabbing her glaive at him. The copy was dodging and then suddenly closed the distance and got right in front of Sakie and tried to punch at her.

Sakie ducked under the punch and swung her glaive around so that the blunt end hit the copy in the stomach and lifted him up into the air. She spun her glaive around yet again and started moving the blade incredibly quickly, slicing the copy so fast it was holding him in the air. "Crowd Surfing!" Sakie yelled as she continued this for several seconds, causing a large amount of cuts on the copy's body, until he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Bearpaw was on the defensive against his copy. Not because it was strong, but because he was busy watching everyone else while fighting as well. Once Bearpaw saw that everyone was fine, he suddenly shot his fist forward and hit the copy in the stomach, causing it to slide back several feet.

Bearpaw used this time to stomp his feet on the ground, suddenly the trees around his began shaking. "Spirit of Earth: Leaf Prison!" He yelled as hundreds upon hundreds of leafs flew off the nearby trees and began to surround the copy, who tried to brush them aside, but they simply moved to surround him yet again.

Bearpaw looked on from outside and waited until the leafs had completely surrounded the copy. "Spirit of Fire: Breath!" Yelled as he shot a cone of fire from his mouth that lit the entire ball of leafs on fire, which quickly began to close in on the copy, before long the flaming leafs stuck to his body and he screamed in pain for a second before disappearing in a puff of smoke, leaving behind charred leafs.

Jiiku was almost toying with the copy facing him, easily dodging its attacks and counter attacking to push it back. "I realize there are 9 of these copies so they probably have a ninth of the original's power, but come on, a ninth of his intelligence or something. You are so stupid." Jiiku said as he mocked the copy and stuck his tongue out at it.

The copy charged forward and attempted to hit Jiiku again. Jiiku simply leaned to the side and dodged a punch as it flew just past his neck. Jiiku shot his arm out and grabbed the copy's arm. He lifted the copy up and slammed him into the ground.

"Improv Fighting Style: Dog Pile!" Jiiku yelled as he jumped up in the air and slammed down onto the copy with his elbow hitting the copy in the face and causing it to explode.

All of the copies being defeated around the same time caused Katsutoshi to flinch for just a moment, but in that moment Tairaa closed the distance and placed his fists one above the other, palms pointed towards each other and placed both hands close to Katsutoshi.

"The most powerful Rokushiki technique, Rokuogan!" Tairaa yelled as Katsutoshi opened his eyes. Suddenly a powerful shockwave shot forth from Tairaa's hands, causing Katsutoshi to cough up blood and made his eyes roll back in his head.

He regained his composure and jumped away from Tairaa as quick as he could, holding his stomach where he had gotten hit.

Katsutoshi looked forward and saw the entire crew approaching him. They were still quite far away, so he took a deep breath and went into deep concentration.

"I'm getting him now!" Jiiku yelled as he charged forward as fast as he could.

Suddenly there was a huge explosion of smoke covering the entire area in front of the crew and reaching many meters into the air. Jiiku jumped into the cloud of smoke without a second thought.

"Those stupid clones don't scare me!" Jiiku yelled as he disappeared from the crew's sight.

Not even a second later there was a loud impact sound and Jiiku was sent flying backwards out of the cloud at an incredible speed, rolling along the ground for several seconds before he managed to slow himself down and stand up.

"What the hell was that?" Cora asked as she turned to Jiiku.

"I don't know, but it wasn't one of those stupid clones." Jiiku said as he walked back up close to the crew, still looking in pain.

"Did I ever say that my copies had to be the same size as me?" Katsutoshi said as the smoke began to fade.

Once the smoke faded the whole crew stood looking on in shock. Standing in the clearing was a giant version of Katsutoshi, easily the size of two regular giants, or maybe even larger.

The regular Katsutoshi was standing on the giant's shoulder his eyes closed and his hand pressed against the side of the giant's head.

"He is controlling that one directly." Yura said as she looked up at the giant. "I can sense a connection between their minds."

"Great, so it's going to be huge, powerful and smart." Tairaa said as he got ready to fight.

Suddenly the giant began moving. "Get ready!" Tairaa yelled as the giant shot out its arm towards the crew, who all ran in different direction. Except Tairaa, who jumped in the air just high enough to avoid getting hit by the giant.

Tairaa landed on the giant's arm and began running up it. The giant reacted by lifting and shaking his arm, causing Tairaa to go flying off to the side. Tairaa readjusted in mid-air and pushed off the air. "Geppou!" He yelled as he flew towards the real Katsutoshi, he was getting close when he began to see a shadow form over him.

Tairaa looked up to see the giant's hand coming at him incredibly quickly. "Shi…" Was all Tairaa had time to say before he was slapped out of the air and sent hurtling towards the ground.

Just before Tairaa hit the ground he began to glow purple and his decent was slowed, but he still hit the ground with a decent amount of force.

"Sorry Captain, couldn't slow you down completely in time." Yura said as she walked over and helped Tairaa to his feet.

"Don't worry about it," Tairaa said dusting himself off. Tairaa looked up and instantly yelled "MOVE!" and pushed Yura out of the way as the giant's foot slammed into the ground, landing right on Tairaa.

"TAIRAA!" The crew yelled, especially Yura, who he had risked injury to get out of the way.

Suddenly from under the giant's foot the crew heard "Fusion: Arms – 20 Percent!" Then the giant's foot began to move upwards, despite the fact that the giant was still trying to push down.

Kurisu, Sakie and Cora all charged at the giant's leg with weapons drawn. "Get off of him!" Cora yelled as all three of them swung their weapons at the giant's leg.

The giant lifted his leg enough to dodge the attacks and allow Tairaa to quickly be carried out by Bearpaw.

Razar and Damian were charging at the giant's chest now that it was only balancing on one foot. They both punched out and hit the giant in the stomach, causing it to hop back several feet before placing its foot back on the ground.

As soon as the giant's foot touched the floor, it shot it out yet again and hit Razar and Damian with the sole of its foot, sending them flying back towards the crew.

Jiiku jumped behind both of them and caught them to slow them down, although he slid many feet backwards doing it.

"Thanks" They both said as they caught their breath.

"We need to get this thing off balance, it is the only way we are going to win." Jiiku said as the crew gathered together again.

"Okay, Yura and Akira, you aim for the real Katsutoshi and try and keep him distracted. Bearpaw, Damian and Razar, you guys aim for his body, try to keep him moving around. Sakie, Cora and Kurisu, aim for his legs, try to weaken them so it's easier to knock him over. Jiiku, you and I will try to keep his arms in check so no one gets hit too hard." Tairaa said as the crew all readied for another attack. "Everyone got it?" The crew quickly nodded. "Then let's go!" Tairaa yelled as everyone began charging forward.

The giant did a sweeping leg kick at the crew, his foot just barely above the ground. Some of the crew members jumped over it as it came, but Tairaa and a few others slid on the floor, the foot passing them just over their heads.

The giant punched out one of his hands at the crew as they ran towards him. "Split!" Tairaa yelled as the crew divided into two groups, each one running to a different side to avoid the fist.

The giant was about to throw another punch at Tairaa when he heard Bearpaw yell "Spirit of Air: Tornado Palm!" He was sent back several feet when a huge gust of wind slammed into his stomach. He began to resist and threw a punch at Bearpaw from the side.

"Fusion: Legs – 25 Percent!" Tairaa yelled as he jumped in front of the fist and kicked it just as it approached him. There was a large shockwave that sent Tairaa flying backwards but also stopped the giant's fist long enough for Bearpaw to get away.

Tairaa landed beside the crew and the giant was preparing to run forward again. "You should pay more attention to your surroundings" Akira yelled as the giant looked in the air and saw Akira floating up above him with 20 or so chunks of earth. "Tsu Tsu Meteor Shower!" Akira yelled as he began rapidly punching the rocks and sending them flying towards the giant, who attempted to block them with his hands, but after several of the rocks opened up cuts on his body, he jumped back to avoid the rest.

As soon as the giant landed, he heard shouting from a distance.

"Crimson Tsunami!" Kurisu yelled.

"Snake Arm Slice!" Cora yelled.

"Power Slide Slice!" Sakie yelled.

Suddenly three huge blades of air slammed into the giant's leg, causing him to lift it off the ground in pain. Then before he could react, Razar, Bearpaw and Damian ran up and punched his other leg as hard as they could, causing the giant to lose its balance and begin to fall forward towards the ground.

As it was falling, Jiiku and Yura ran up so that they were under it. "Rapid Mind Pulse!" Yura yelled as she began firing mind pulses as quickly as she could at the giant's stomach.

"Rapid Jugon!" Jiiku yelled as he punched at the giant's chest as quick as he could, both of these attacks kept the giant at a 45 degree angle for several seconds while Tairaa jumped up in front of its face and put both of his hands together.

"Rokuogan!" Tairaa yelled as he fired a pulse from his hands straight at the giant's head, causing it to cough slightly and then continue to fall.

Tairaa, Jiiku and Yura all managed to get out of the way before the giant hit the ground, causing a loud thud and sending dust up into the air.

The crew gathered together again, everyone breathing heavily. "Is it over?" Sakie asked.

"Over? It's only just begun!" Came Katsutoshi's voice from where the giant had landed as he began laughing.

The giant lifted one of its arms and put its hand on the ground and began lifting itself back onto its feet.

Once the giant was on its feet it looked towards the crew, the real Katsutoshi still on its shoulder. "Sorry about that, guys, I haven't used this in a really long time and I was still getting use to operating it. But now I'm all set and ready to go." The giant said in Katsutoshi's voice.

Without warning the giant burst forward with speed the crew didn't think was possible for a giant. He kicked out his foot and hit Cora with a force that sent her flying backwards, eventually crashing into some trees before stopping.

"Scatter!" Tairaa yelled as the crew all ran in different directions as the giant was right in front of them.

The giant quickly spotted Tairaa and charged towards him. Tairaa barely dodged the first two punches thrown at him. "Is that all you're going to do? Run around." The giant yelled as it continued attacking.

"Not at all." Tairaa said as he suddenly stopped moving after dodging one more attack. "Full Body Fusion: 30 Percent!" Tairaa yelled as there was a burst of pressure from his body.

The giant punched once again, but this time Tairaa stood in front of the fist until the very end. "Soru!" he yelled as he disappeared in a blur of motion, less the a second later appearing beside the giant's head.

Tairaa screamed as he kicked the giant with all the power he could muster, sending it sliding backwards, managing to stay upright.

"Shell Missiles!" Razar yelled as many missiles hit the back of the giant, causing many explosions that caused it to cough and close its eyes for a second.

"Now!" Tairaa yelled as everyone jumped towards the giant, weapons drawn and attacks ready.

The giant regained its senses just in time to swing its arm and knock the crew out of the air and slam them into the ground.

The crew got up just in time to dodge another punch that was thrown at them. Leaving a large impact crater where the crew use to be laying.

The crew was breathing heavily as the stared at the seemingly unstoppable force in front of them.

"How do we beat something this powerful?" Razar asked while looking towards Tairaa.

"Easy, we just have to be more powerful." Tairaa said, trying to laugh. "Full Body Fusion: 40 Percent!" Tairaa yelled as there was another blast of pressure, but right afterwards, Tairaa coughed up a large amount of blood.

The giant's eyes widened slightly at this. "You think I'll let you prepare!" He yelled as he punched out at Tairaa.

Jiiku jumped in front of the punch and put both hands out to stop it. Jiiku struggled as Tairaa regained his composure. "I really hope you know what you're doing." Jiiku said as he started pushing the giant's fist back slightly. "Your body is already beat up enough as it is."

"Don't worry about me." Tairaa said as he turned to the crew. "We need to immobilize it, go!" Suddenly the crew all disappeared including Jiiku, allowing the fist to continue and slam into the ground where the crew use to be.

Tairaa appeared a second later in front of the giant's face. "Rankyaku Barrage!" He yelled as he kicked his legs multiple times and a huge amount of Rankyakus went flying towards the giant's face.

The giant brought his hand up in time to absorb the attacks instead, leaving many cut marks on his hands, some of which started bleeding. He punched out at Tairaa with the other hand but Tairaa quickly disappeared using a combination of Geppou and Soru.

"You don't have time to be focusing on just him!" Kurisu yelled as he jumped up beside the giant. "Crimson Spear!" Kurisu yelled as he jabbed out both of his large swords at the same time, sending out a large red blade of air that was shaped like a spear.

The giant ducked to avoid the attack going through his shoulder, but it still managed to hit the top of his shoulder, causing a large cut and making the giant grab his should in pain with his other hand.

The giant used the hand on the arm that got hit to grab Kurisu who was still in mid-air and slam him into the ground, causing Kurisu to cough up blood and fall unconscious from the impact.

"Kurisu!" The crew yelled as the saw him get slammed into the ground.

The giant quickly turned and spotted Akira, who was readying an attack. "Not so fast!" The giant yelled as kicked Akira through the air and chased after him just as quickly. The giant punched Akira out of the air and into the ground, leaving a large crater from the impact.

With little hesitation the giant turned and shot out his fist at Cora and Razar, who were standing together. Razar pushed Cora out of the way but got hit by the attack, causing another large crater and knocking Razar unconscious.

Cora had no time to check on Razar as the giant charged forward at her and punched out.

"Cora!" Bearpaw and Jiiku yelled as the appeared beside her and stopped the punch as it was just about to hit Cora.

"Watch out!" Cora yelled as the giant's other fist came flying in, knocking Jiiku and Bearpaw off to the side.

The giant wasted no time in jumping up and stomping Jiiku and Bearpaw into the ground. He then instantly turned and punched out at Cora, who had no time to dodge and was also hit.

Tairaa reappeared again in front of the giant, "HOW DARE YOU!" Tairaa yelled as he used Geppou to push off the air and charged towards the giant's stomach, punching it and causing it to step back slightly.

The giant reacted as quick as it could and shot out its knee, which hit Tairaa and caused him to gasp for air. The giant then punched Tairaa out of the air and slammed him into the ground.

Sakie, Yura and Damian were already behind the giant at this time. Damian jumped up and punched it in the back as hard as he could, causing it to arc its back in pain. Sakie followed by running and slicing its legs as quick as she could, leaving several cuts. Yura then fired a large mind pulse into its back, causing it to arc more.

The giant spun around and almost instantly punched Damian out of the air, slamming him straight into Yura. As soon Damian had hit Yura, the giant elbowed both of them into the ground, leaving only Sakie.

Since the giant's elbow was already in the ground, he extended his arm and managed to grab Sakie, who was trying to get some distance. He then proceeded to slam her into the ground like Kurisu.

The giant breathed heavily once Sakie was out. "Well, you guys certainly were entertaining, but I guess you just weren't quite up to it." The giant said as he began laughing.

"Can you give us one more try?" Came Jiiku's voice from the side.

The giant gasped in shock as he turned to see Jiiku, as well as every other member of the crew begin to stand up and walk out of the impact zones where they were hit.

"Now this is more like it!" The giant yelled, still laughing. "Come and meet your demise!"

"Spirit of Earth: Entangle!" Bearpaw yelled as he slammed his hand into the ground and screamed as he struggled to muster enough strength. Suddenly hundreds of roots and vines shot forth from the earth and began wrapping around the giant's feet.

Just as the giant tried to bend down to rip them off, Sakie, Cora and Kurisu jumped up at one of its arms, cutting it in multiple places and rendering unable to move.

The giant swung his other arm at the three, but Akira yelled "Tsu Tsu Giant Arm!" And suddenly a large arm made out of earth rose out of the ground and grabbed onto the giant's arm, keeping it in place.

Razar, Damian, Yura and Jiiku jumped up in front of the giant and all punched or shot abilities at its chest, causing it to start to fall backwards.

Tairaa then appeared right above the giant's heart area. "Fusion: Arms – 60 Percent!" Tairaa yelled as is arms almost doubled from their normal size.

The crew could tell he was in a lot of pain but wasn't giving up. "ROKUOGAN!" Tairaa yelled as he fired a huge shockwave through the giant's heart area. The shockwave was so powerful that once it went through the giant and hit the ground under him, it caused a crater almost as large as one of the giant's fists.

The giant fell to the ground and once it did, it exploded into smoke just like all the other copies had.

"WE DID IT!" The whole crew yelled as they gathered together where the giant had fallen.

"But we have to make sure that Katsutoshi guy is out." Kurisu said as he began walking towards where the shoulder area would have been.

The crew could see Katsutoshi laying on the ground, in extreme amounts of pain, and breathing heavily near the impact zone.

Once the crew got closer they noticed something that none of them wanted to see.

* * *

**Well there you go. Please review as I am always hoping to improve. Also the request that was previously chapter 17 still holds. I want someone to draw a picture of crew. Whether it be individual bounty posters (now that all of them have them) or a drawing of the whole crew together it doesn't matter to me. If you have a scanner and are good at drawing anime, feel free to take up this task. I don't care if I get submissions from multiple artists, just send me a PM and I will be more then happy to let you draw them as well.**

**I would love to make an estimate as to when I will have the next chapter up, but seeing as I will probably procrastinate and such, I will just say that I will get to it eventually.**


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